


Vampires Are Perverts, Right?

by daphnerunning, Galiko



Series: Who Cares, It's Vampires [1]
Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: Biting, Blood Drinking, M/M, Sibling Incest, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-20
Updated: 2016-08-05
Packaged: 2018-07-25 12:47:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 3
Words: 24,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7533346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daphnerunning/pseuds/daphnerunning, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Galiko/pseuds/Galiko
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>His older brother has been going out at night, hanging out with a lot of weird-looking guys, even some high-schoolers, not coming out in the daytime, and neither of their parents care. What's a little brother to do besides pick the lock to his bedroom?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> PLEASE heed archive warnings, this includes sibling incest between significantly underage vampires (12 & 13 years old).

Rei’s head aches. No, his _everything_  aches, and he huddles up underneath layers and layers of blankets, staring listlessly at the wall. 

Escaping his mother’s shrill scolding is a godsend, but it’s only accomplished by a locked door, and that leads to a whole other slew of problems—Ritsu being locked out, namely, but it can’t be helped, not right now. It’s better that Ritsu can’t sidle into his bedroom and ask him _what’s wrong_. Better, because Rei doesn’t even know how to explain it— _it would just sound like another one of our stories that we used to tell each other, wouldn’t it?_

The chills that rake down his spine make him coil up into a tighter ball, and Rei pulls the blankets over his head, shielding himself from the slivers of setting sun that dare to poke in through his window. Soon, _soon_  it’ll be dark, and he’ll feel a little better, but only a _little_. He’s skipped six days of school in a row since last weekend, and the phone call home to his mother is the culmination of his problems, augmented by the fact he can’t focus during the daytime, can’t bring himself to haul himself out of his room, even though she never checked to see until receiving that call.

Idol school, what a joke. What do they care if I show up, anyway? I’m better, so much better than them…

_The pang of hunger that suddenly wracks Rei makes him groan, and he stuffs his face down into his pillow. How much better can he really be if he’s like this? Dying, he’s probably dying, he wish he just would already, because he finally feels as stupid and useless as he was led to believe._

Ritsu waits until the last trickle of light falls beneath the horizon, then pulls the little black bag out of his backpack. The online tutorial had been pretty clear, though it was annoying that they don’t have the kinds of doors around house that are _easy_ to pick. They’re the difficult kind, but he’d studied the video a bunch of times. He pads down the hall as soon as his mother’s door shuts, then starts picking. 

If Rei won’t talk to him, and his mother isn’t going to talk to him, and his father isn’t going to come home _or_ answer his phone, he’s going to have to find out what’s gone wrong by himself. Rei is _sick_ , obviously, but his stupid parents aren’t _doing_ anything about it, just letting him skip school and ignore his little brother, and he wouldn’t do that if he was normal, he just wouldn’t. 

It takes three tries, but finally the lock gives, and Ritsu tucks the picks back into their case, thrilled it had worked. YouTube _is_ good for something! Carefully, he opens the door, slipping inside. It takes a second for his eyes to adjust to the darkness--Rei has pulled the blackout curtains over the window. That’s...not like him, and another pang of nerves shoots through him. What could be so wrong with his brother that he’s like this, but not make his parents take him to the doctor? 

“Onii-chan,” he whispers, padding closer to the bed, eyes wide in the darkness. “It’s Ritsu. You’re...not dead, right?”

The sound of his door opening doesn’t even register when he’s buried under so many blankets, but what _does_  register is the sudden sound of…god, what is that? It sounds like water running, almost, but it’s softer, and steadier, and it makes him hungrier…

_Blood_ , Rei dimly realizes. It’s blood, thumping through Ritsu’s veins. Ritsu’s blood, Ritsu, his little brother, his adorable, sweet, shy little brother, who smells so, _so_  good…

“Get out,” Rei croaks, yanking harder on his blankets, trying to cocoon himself to keep from leaping from the bed. “Not dead, just—just leave me alone.”

“What’s wrong?” 

Ritsu pads a little closer, ignoring the order to get out. It’s not the first time Rei has snapped at him like that, but Mom says that’s just part of becoming a teenager, which sounds like crap to Ritsu. 

He plucks at the blankets, not sure if he’s going to cause more trouble by grabbing and shaking. “Mom and Dad are both gone, if you’re trying to avoid them...it’s just us. I can--I could tell you one of our stories?” His voice wavers, uncertain. Rei doesn’t usually ignore him like this, but since he’d started hanging out with his new friends...

“I told you to leave me alone!”

Rei rips the blankets off of his head to properly snarl out the words, and he wishes immediately that he hadn’t. He can suddenly smell Ritsu all the more, and he chokes on air, clamping a hand over his nose and mouth as he recoils, curling himself into a ball. His fangs—they _are_  fangs, he’s come to realize, sharp and deadly and aching to sink into flesh—prick into his lower lip, and he sucks in a shuddery breath as he stares over at Ritsu, wall-eyed and shaky. He must look like a mess, because he certainly feels like one—pale and gaunt and clammy, shaking every few seconds like he’s his mother’s stupid chihuahua, and trying to explain all of that is _impossible._

Ritsu blinks in the low light, standing stock-still. Rei is moving weirdly, as if he’s thrashing around, but why? Tentatively, he whispers, “You...onii-chan, I’m gonna turn on a light--”

“Don’t,” Rei snaps, grabbing for his blankets again. “It hurts. Go get your phone or something if you won’t leave me alone, that’s as much light as I can handle.” Maybe if Ritsu leaves, he can lock the door again and he won’t try to come in this time.

“But what’s wrong with you?” Ritsu’s voice wavers, and he takes an involuntary step forward, laying a hand on Rei’s shoulder. “Is something wrong with your eyes?”

“Why won’t you just leave me alone?!” Rei makes to lash out, to shove Ritsu forcibly away from him, but at the last second, he can’t, he just _can’t_. His fingers curl vice-tight against Ritsu’s arm instead, and he can feel the blood pulsing underneath his fingertips, warm, fragrant—

Rei swallows hard, compulsively dragging Ritsu onto the bed, his breathing heavy as he shoves Ritsu down. “I told you to leave.”  He can’t stop, not now, and his voice breaks a little with the realization of it. 

“O-o-onii-chan?” Ritsu’s voice stutters, his eyes gone wide in the darkness as Rei shoves him down to the bed. He tugs at his arm, but Rei is _strong_ , feeling way stronger than whenever they’d wrestled or grabbed or fought in the past. “That--that hurts, why are you--”

Rei doesn’t say anything, not when he can’t help but climb on top of Ritsu, his breath fast and desperate. When he shoves his face into Ritsu’s neck, he can’t even begin to choke down a groan—just pressing his lips to that thudding, pulsing artery makes him hungrier, makes his fingers grip tighter as he pins Ritsu’s arm to the bed. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he whispers, and he bites. 

The least he could be is gentle or neat, but he can’t, he _can’t_ , not like when he was bitten, with soft words and deceptively gentle hands. He’s hungrier, far hungrier, a million times for desperate for a taste, and Ritsu’s blood flowing against his tongue just makes him bite harder, gulping down mouthfuls that only make him need more.

Ritsu’s mouth falls open in a scream, so loud he hears it high-pitched and tinny in his own ears. Rei’s teeth are sharp--too sharp, it’s weird, it _hurts_ \--in his neck, and he thrashes, unable to do anything when Rei has him pinned down. Panic flares, but he can’t _move_. Something makes him lay still, a curious fuzzy, fading feeling that makes his arms and legs fall limply to the bed, even as the pain throbs and tears at him. “Onii....chan,” he whispers, the dark outlines in the room starting to fade from view. A prickling coolness starts at his neck, numbing, relaxing, like drops of water running through his veins, and his heart thuds slowly in his ears, slower, slower, slower...

A little bit more, a little bit more, then it’ll be enough, it has to be enough…

If he takes a little bit more, then what?

The panic from that thought alone snaps Rei out of the desire to _feed._  The pounding in his head subsides, the agonizing hunger pains start to fade with every swallow, but Ritsu starts to go still, and that’s wrong, so wrong. Rei jerks back, forcing himself to pry his jaw off of Ritsu’s neck, blood trickling down from his lips and onto his chin. _“You’ve gotta turn that one, he’s too pretty to lose!”_ —that had been the jeer before a slit wrist had been shoved into his mouth, and _drink_  had been the only command he’d registered—

“Ritsu,” Rei mutters, dazedly, giving his brother a gentle shake. “Ritsu, c’mon, you can’t fall asleep…” 

Ritsu’s eyelids slide open once, then closed slowly, and stay that way. There’s a weird sound, as if Rei is talking, but that doesn’t feel right. It sounds like it’s coming from a long way away, farther away than the pressure on his shoulder. Something stings on his neck, but that feels far away too. He tries to ask why Rei is talking underwater, but it comes out as a weird mumble that doesn’t sound like what he was trying to say. Everything feels sort of slow, and colder every second, as if he’s sinking into icewater. _Sleep sounds kind of good..._

Rei doesn’t think, he acts. He bites into his own wrist, and the pain doesn’t even register. Blood drips freely as he grabs frantically for Ritsu’s chin, holding his head still from lolling to press his wrist to his mouth, hoping, _hoping_  at least some of it gets down his throat. “Sorry, I’m sorry,” he whispers. “Come on, Ritsu, just—swallow, okay? You’ll feel better, I promise.” _I can’t kill my own little brother, I can’t._

Something flares through the sluggish fog surrounding Ritsu’s brain. Bright sour fruits burst on his tongue, a live wire hooked up to his mouth giving him a jolt back into consciousness. He gasps, panicked and startled, and his hands reach up, grabbing at Rei’s shoulders with a shuddering sob. “Wh--”

His heart thuds. Blood pulses. Pain races through his body, wrecking every nerve, making him scream, until blood pulses again, and the pain fizzles down into nothing, nothing next to the sweet tang on his lips.

His vision snaps into focus, and he looks around at the room, at his brother’s familiar face, with swirling red eyes and blood dripping from sharp teeth--

“When did you turn on the light?” he whispers, as if that’s the most important thing in the sea of strangeness and fear that threaten to engulf him.

_Not dead, not dead, everything else is fine so long as he isn’t dead._  Rei rocks back, his hands trembling as he threads them through Ritsu’s hair, gently, softly stroking. “I didn’t,” he murmurs. He can see the way the brown in Ritsu’s eyes already shifts to red, strangely spiraling, just like his own, and Rei swallows around the sharp pang of guilt in his chest. “I’m sorry, Ritsu, I’m really sorry.” 

Rei is touching him, which is nice, like when he was young and he’d had nightmares. Ritsu turns his head, nuzzling into his brother’s cool hand, seeking that reassuring stroke. “Sleepy,” he murmurs, though he doesn’t feel like he wants to actually go to sleep. It’s more a curious dampening, Rei’s hand soothing away some of the pain and strangeness. “Don’t feel good. Nn, make it stop?”

“I don’t know how,” Rei admits on a ragged laugh, though he doesn’t stop petting. That’s all he knows how to do at this point, especially when a glance at the pale column of Ritsu’s neck makes him dizzy again, and he swallows, glancing aside into the dark of his room. “Are you…you’re not hungry already, are you? I wasn’t, it took a little while…” 

Carefully, Ritsu hefts himself up onto his hands, then tucks his knees under his chin, hugging his legs. The world seems to pulse oddly, as if he’s seeing colors that hadn’t existed before, smelling things that hadn’t been named. “Not hungry. I had dinner...” Had it only been a couple of hours earlier? It feels like days at least, maybe weeks. His neck throbs, and when he twists to rub it, his tongue rubs over something sharp in his own mouth. His lower lip trembles. “Onii-chan...what’s happening to me? I don’t feel good at all.”

There’s that throb of guilt again, and Rei grabs for Ritsu, hauling him close, crushing him to his chest. “Sorry,” he mutters into Ritsu’s hair. “I’m so sorry. This is my fault. I…the other night, I fucked up, and something happened, and now…” Trying to _explain it_  makes him feel sick. Gnawing on his own lower lip, still tasting the lingering, dried blood there, Rei warily reaches for one of his curtains, tugging it open just enough to let the night’s natural darkness in, and that feels better in a way that makes him shiver. “Promise you won’t hate me.” 

Ritsu nuzzles into his brother’s chest. It’s so much broader than his own, even if they’re only a year apart, and makes him feel safe in a way that locked doors never have. “I couldn’t ever hate you. Nn, did someone do something to you? I’ll kill them.”

Rei exhales a long, hard breath as he flops down onto his side, curling all four limbs around Ritsu to keep him close. “Don’t say shit like that,” he mutters, keeping Ritsu’s face shoved into his chest on purpose. He’s not sure he can handle Ritsu looking at him right now. “I’m an idiot, that’s what happened. I thought…ugh. You know how my band’s been performing stuff around Shinjuku Station, right?” ‘Band’ is a pretty word for a bunch of losers that can barely carry a tune, with Rei struggling to make them pay attention to a word he’s saying. _Should’ve stuck to idol school units and bubblegum pop_ , he tiredly thinks. 

“Yeah. Your band is really, uh, cool.” Ritsu hates them all, Rei’s stupid loud troublemaker friends. They have awful taste, they’re nowhere as good as his older brother at music, and Rei starts cursing and yelling at their parents whenever they’ve been hanging out.

“Yeah, whatever. Anyway, some guy came up to me last weekend, and said he was a producer.” Rei’s arms tighten around Ritsu. “Guess it’s easy to infer now that he was lying. I…fuck, I’m a dumbass,” he breathlessly laughs. “I just wanted a way out of here, you know? Going to school for music’s nice and all, but it doesn’t mean shit unless I can get an agent, so I…I went home with this guy.” 

Ritsu frowns, hands tangling in his brother’s shirt. “That was dumb. That’s dumb, why...why do you want to leave? You can’t leave me here with _them_ , you can’t, what’s a dumb gross producer guy gonna do?”

“Help me make money, so I can move _both_  of us out of here.” Rei sighs, shoving his face down into Ritsu’s hair. “At least, that was the plan. Instead, I fucked up. He turned me into this, and now I bit you, too.” 

Ritsu’s hand moves up to his neck, thumbing over the bite. Then, he reaches up, fingers brushing over Rei’s neck. Sure enough, there are tiny healing bite marks there, too. His eyes go slowly wide, and he looks up, mouth falling open. “Seriously? _Seriously?_ Are we seriously--are you kidding me, or are you _seriously_ saying we’re--you know... _vampires?_ ”

“…You sound _excited_  about it,” Rei incredulously says, and he huffs, rolling backwards and throwing an arm over his face. “It’s the only thing that makes sense, but it still doesn’t make sense. Ugh, I wanna die…” 

Ritsu’s face lights up, and he rubs the sleep out of his eyes, looking around the room. “So, do we have, like, special powers or something? Onii-chan, you’re excited too, right? We’re never going to get old and gross and die, and vampires are totally sexy.”

“Special powers…mostly seems like I’m hungry all the time and I hate light.” Rei watches Ritsu from underneath his lashes, frowning. “You’ll hate it in the morning, trust me. Now Mom and Dad are gonna yell at you, too.” 

Ritsu shrugs, then scoots closer. “Does it mean I can sleep in your bed again?” Mom and Dad yell at him for that a lot, but he doesn’t care as long as Rei wants him there.

Rei hesitates, glancing aside again. “…Mom’s going to get all shrill and obnoxious about it,” he hedges. “It’s one thing if I’m locked up in here, something else if it’s you, too. She actually likes you.” That comes out whinier than he’d like, but fuck it, he’s so tired he doesn’t care.

“Wish she’d die,” Ritsu says bluntly. He rolls over, butting his head against Rei’s chest. “Let her yell. I’ll bite her. I’ll bite anyone that tries to take you away from me.”

“You can’t bite our mom,” Rei mutters, even as he slings an arm around Ritsu again, squeezing him tight. “You shouldn’t bite most people. What if people find out, huh? That’s bad.” 

“Why? What are they gonna do?” It’s hard to feel nervous when Ritsu is pretty sure he’s going to live forever with his awesome, cool, handsome older brother. “Thought you hated me, when you locked me out.”

“I just didn’t want to _bite you_ , you idiot,” Rei groans, stuffing his face down into Ritsu’s neck—and then regrets it, recoiling with a quick inhale, lest he bite down again. It’s tempting, _very_  tempting. “This isn’t something you can go and tell…you know, your friends like Mao.” 

Ritsu frowns. “But Maa-kun would make a good vampire. We could have plans.”

Something about that _really_  irritates Rei. He can’t put his finger on it, and that’s the most frustrating thing, but it mostly makes him want to throw Ritsu onto his back again and suck him dry. _Stop it,_  he tries to tell those thoughts, horrified. “You can’t turn him into a vampire. He’s…not the kind that’ll like it.”

Slowly, Ritsu blinks up at Rei, something hot and ill curling in his belly. “Is that why you did it to me? You thought I’d like it?”

“…I…Ritsu, I didn’t mean to do it to you at all. I kept trying to make you leave me alone, but you _wouldn’t._ ” Rei groans, releasing Ritsu with a little shove, and rolls over, giving Ritsu a view of his back only. “It’s not my fault you smell so good, and taste so good, I couldn’t help it.” 

Unhappiness starts to flare then, and Ritsu kicks at Rei’s back, face crumpling. “You want to live forever without me? You want to leave so bad? _Fine_ , stay here alone, asshole!”

“Who the fuck taught you to curse like that?” Rei snarls, twisting around to smack at Ritsu’s legs in a half-hearted attempt to get him to stop kicking. “I never said any of that! Is it so bad that I didn’t want you to have to go through something so fucked up, huh?”

Ritsu cries out, rolling off the bed and darting across the room. The excitement of earlier is gone, replaced by nerves, anger, fear, and frustration that Rei is being so _mean_ when it’s supposed to be them against their parents, them against the world. “I just wanna help you! Don’t--don’t _yell_ at me, I picked the lock because I thought you were dying, because you wouldn’t _talk_ to me!”

“Because I didn’t want you dragged into this!” Rei exhales a long, frustrated sigh before he forces himself to sit up, raking a hand back through his hair. “Ritsu, just…just come back here, I’m sorry for yelling at you. I’m really tired and freaked out, okay? And I don’t want Mom to find out, you know?” 

A couple of tears sting Ritsu’s eyes, and he scrubs at them with the back of his hand. “This is all your dumb friends’ fault. Why didn’t you bring them with you to this dumb guy’s house? What were you gonna do there?”

“Come _here_ ,” Rei insists, reaching out a hand. “I was just going to talk to him, I swear. He didn’t want my friends to come, he was…he was only interested in me.” _You’re the only one with talent, real talent_ —just those simple words had been enough. 

“He was probably a pervert. Vampires are perverts, right? That’s how it is in all the books.” Ritsu takes a hesitant step forward, and takes Rei’s hand. “You wouldn’t let a pervert do stuff to you for a music career, would you?”

Rei grips Ritsu’s hand tightly, using that to haul him forward again and shove Ritsu’s face back into his chest. _Vampires are perverts_ —he can’t even make a joke about how Ritsu must think he’s a pervert now, not when that tall, dark ‘producer’ had been a real charmer, had handed over his card with a smile, had led Rei home without even having to wink or flirt… _stupid, I’m so stupid._  “Not important,” he murmurs. “It’s not important. Ritsu, stop asking me about it, just promise me you’ll be good and not let Mom or Dad find out about anything, okay? That means no biting, just…just come to me if you’re hungry, it’s fine.”

Slowly, Ritsu wraps his arms around his brother’s neck, nodding against the soft skin there. “You fed me earlier, right? I can still kinda taste it. Tasted good.” He inhales deeply, and a hunger like none he’s ever felt washes over him, making his fingers tremble, his mouth water. “I think...Onii-chan, I can _hear_ your blood. That’s...kinda scary.”

“Right? It’s weird,” Rei agrees with a soft laugh, butting his head against Ritsu’s. “Drives me nuts to listen to yours. It makes me want to eat you alive, all of you, and it’s so hard to stop.” 

“But you do, right?” Ritsu’s hands knead into Rei’s shoulders, making slow biscuits like the old cat that used to sun herself outside his room, the one his mother had gotten rid of. “You...do we have to kill people? You’d tell me if you did, right?”

“…You’re the first person I drank from, so hell if I know,” Rei mutters, burying his face down into Ritsu’s shoulder with a shaky, tired sigh. “If anyone has to kill anyone, I’ll do it. You’re too cute to be a murderer.” 

“You think we can just drink from each other?” Ritsu frowns. “Does it work that way? What did the producer say? Hey, I heard that in some books, if you kill the vampire who turned you, you’ll go back to being human.”

“He didn’t tell me shit. Oi, didn’t I tell you to stop bringing all that up?” Rei grouses. “I don’t wanna go find him and deal with it, I’d rather just see if we _can_  drink from each other…and if that doesn’t work, I’ll go kill someone or something, whatever.” He’s probably being too casual about this, but to his credit, he’s a _vampire_  now. Aren’t there exceptions to the rules because of that?

“Just don’t do it without me. That can be the rule.” Ritsu contemplates for a moment, then decides that he’s not end-of-the-world hungry. Rei is holding him, though, which he hasn’t done for a while. He snuggles in, unwilling to relinquish the spot on his brother’s lap. “You haven’t let me do this since you started hanging out with your new friends.”

“I know. I’m the worst, go ahead and say it.” With his face buried into Ritsu’s shoulder, at least the world is slightly less awful. 

“Your band sucks and you’re not allowed to be mean to me anymore.” That’s kind of what Rei had said, right? “Or I’ll make Maa-kun my vampire buddy.”

Without thinking, Rei growls against Ritsu’s shoulder. “Don’t even _tell_  him about any of this,” he lowly warns. “He’s not gonna get it.” 

Ritsu pushes up at his brother’s shoulders, brows furrowing. “What are you gonna do if I do?” he challenges. “You’re the one that made me this way, I can tell Maa-kun if I want!”

Rei finally lifts his head, staring back at Ritsu. “Do you _want_  him to be freaked out?” he bluntly asks. “Ritsu, he already gets weird when you want to kiss his neck, what’s he going to do if you want to bite it?” 

“I bite him all the time!” Ritsu protests. “I mean, he cries and stuff, but it’s not that bad!”

“…Ritsu, what the hell.”

“I’m making him like me.”

“That’s _not_  how you make guys like you.”

“But Maa-kun likes me a lot, so it’s okay.” Ritsu flops back onto Rei’s bed, staring up at the ceiling, drinking in the natural darkness. “Not as much in middle school. He doesn’t help me get dressed in the mornings as much. Onii-chan is always practicing, so that’s our special time.”

Rei decides not to say anything to that—he’s to blame for Ritsu’s attachment to someone else that isn’t him, definitely, so there’s no point in being jealous (even if he is). Instead, he stretches back out next to Ritsu, dragging a pillow over to stuff his face mostly into. “Doesn’t he like girls?” he finally says. “It’s a waste of your time, Ritsu.”

Ritsu goes quiet, the tense, frustrated sadness coming back whenever he thinks about Mao and some stupid _girl_ , some dumb contest he’d played in to see if he could get a kiss from someone in class 3-A. “As long as he likes me best, it’s okay. Onii-chan has new friends, so I’m gonna stick with Maa-kun.”

“Have _you_  kissed him?” It’s a lot easier addressing Ritsu’s issues than his own, like the fact his ‘friends’ haven’t even bothered checking in on him after he missed seven days of school in a row. Whatever. 

“We have indirect kisses whenever I steal his juice,” Ritsu says with a shrug. “And I kiss his neck sometimes. He always pretends like he doesn’t like it, though.”

“Ritsu,” Rei says tiredly, “he’s straight.” 

“What’s that mean?”

“It means he only likes girls. He’s not pretending, he doesn’t think boys are cute.”

Ritsu frowns. “That sounds not real. I’m cute. Maa-kun says I’m cute.”

“Sure, but not cute like a _girl._ ” Rei shakes his head against the pillow. “Ask him if he’s ever wanted to kiss a boy, you’ll see.” 

“I want to kiss boys.” Ritsu reaches up, tugging on one of Rei’s errant strands of wavy hair. “I’ll kiss girls too, though. What about you?”

“Oh, good, you’re not completely useless to our mother,” Rei mutters, his head tipping with the tug. “Girls are no good. Their perfume is bad, long nails, and _lip gloss_ —all of it’s terrible.”

“But they buy me things,” Ritsu points out with a yawn. “Mm, I don’t want to talk about girls. Onii-chan should let me sleep in his bed. And cuddle me. I’m cute, I deserve to be cuddled. Hey, hey, you should tell me a story.”

“You can sleep in my bed,” Rei relents, slowly making his way to curl around Ritsu. “But I’m too tired for stories. Can’t you just be a good kid and let me cuddle you in silence?” 

Ritsu tugs a blanket up over the both of them, then worms back into Rei’s embrace. “You feel bigger than last time we did this,” he says abruptly. “Like a man.”

“Growth spurts, more for you to look forward to.” Rei slings an arm around Ritsu again, dragging him closer and stuffing his face down into Ritsu’s hair. “Do you hate it?” 

“It’s no good for me.” Ritsu frowns, then wriggles back more, feeling more of his brother’s body, the hard flat planes starting to fill with muscle. “If it’s Onii-chan, I guess it’s okay.”

“Maybe you won’t grow.” It’s a nice thought, for Ritsu to stay small and cute forever. Maybe that will happen, now that he’s a vampire? Rei actually doesn’t know how any of this works at all, and maybe that’s for the best, for now. “Mmn. Yeah. Executive order. Don’t get any bigger.” 

“Nooo...what kind of life is a 160 centimeter life...?” Ritsu turns his head and blows a raspberry on his brother’s neck, then pulls the blanket over his head, cackling.

“Gross, you little brat!” Rei rolls forward, deliberately crushing Ritsu underneath his weight. “160 centimeters, don’t kid yourself. You’re _barely_ 158.”

“Crushed!!! Dying!!” Ritsu flails, thrashing and kicking with the lack of care for his brother’s well-being that only a younger sibling can possess. “Unhand me, foul creature of the night!”

For all of Ritsu’s kicking and flailing, he sure isn’t effective. Rei rolls his eyes, ripping the blanket off and pinning Ritsu’s arms over his head with one hand. “Nope, captured.”

“Cruel!” Ritsu lets out a noise like a dying whale, then flops down limply. “You got me. Whatcha gonna do with your captive, Onii-chan?”

“Thinking about eating you,” Rei grumbles, not loosening his hold. “But then, looking at you, there’s not a lot of fat on you…you’d probably be stringy. Do vampires eat any amount of flesh, I wonder, or is it just blood?” 

Ritsu’s red eyes swirl and dance, and he makes a great show of being an unwilling captive, struggling against the hold on his wrists. “Ghouls eat flesh. Vampires drink blood and live in coffins, _duh._ And can turn into bats, when do we learn that part? Oh, and vampires are the sexy ones.” He nudges Rei with a foot. “You’re gonna be good at it.”

Rei’s lips twitch in amusement. “You think I’m sexy?” So help him, Ritsu looks so _cute_  like this, especially when he fake-struggles but doesn’t try all _that_  hard. His fingers squeeze around Ritsu’s wrists before Rei releases them, trailing one hand distractedly down the back of one pale arm. “Even if you’re so cute, it’s not like I’m the only one with sex appeal, though…” 

Ritsu’s head cocks, and he lays still, not entirely sure whether he’s supposed to move or not now that he’s been released. It’s not like there’s anywhere else to _go_ \--it’s late, and everyone else is sleeping, and he’s never felt less tired. “But I don’t have muscles. Maa-kun’s loud friends all say I have girly arms.”

“They’re idiots. I think your arms are sexy.” Rei’s eyes lid, and his thumb drags distractedly over the curve of Ritsu’s shoulder next, then over where he’d bitten, at the bite marks and the ugly bruise forming there—far less neat than the mark on his own neck, but it can’t be helped now. “With a face like yours, muscles wouldn’t be good. It’s better for you to look pretty and cute.” 

Rei’s thumb is gentle when it trails over his skin, not at all like the way they usually play, and goosebumps ripple in its wake. Ritsu shivers, a combination of the soft touch and of his brother’s deepening voice saying he’s sexy, something that makes heat pool confusingly in his belly. “You...think I’m pretty?” Usually Rei just calls him a snotty brat, these days.

“Of course I do, you’re…” Rei trails off, his face flushing slightly when he realizes his fingers have trailed all the way to Ritsu’s face, and his thumb just happens to rub over the swell of Ritsu’s lower lip. _Gross, I’m gross,_  he frantically thinks, stilling his hand. If Ritsu freaks out, he deserves it, one hundred percent, but if he doesn’t…

Ritsu’s breath catches. This...is new.

His body feels too-warm, his heart pounding an unfamiliar rhythm, different from when Mao had dragged him into a long soccer game that had made him nearly collapse from exhaustion. Maybe it’s because he’s a vampire now. _Or maybe it’s because Onii-chan is touching me in a really new way? Is that because of the bite?_

He licks his lips, tongue flicking out over the curve of Rei’s thumb, and looks up, eyes wide. “Are you gonna eat me?” he asks, voice small but unafraid.

Rei is glad he at least manages to strangle the noise in his throat down to a startled, breathless one when Ritsu _licks_  him. “N-no,” he manages, and the urge to throw himself out of the window is a strong one. Admittedly, he’s always thought his little brother was _too_  cute, _too_  pretty, but this is another level, isn’t it? _If I blame it on the fact we’re vampires, does that make it slightly less…_

“Sorry,” Rei whispers in apology for the umpteenth time as he leans down, grabbing Ritsu’s face in his hands. The compulsion is too strong—the words, _tell me to stop if I’m scaring you,_  on the tip of his tongue, but impossible to say when he already presses his mouth to Ritsu’s, kissing him soundly.

Ritsu lets out a little squeak, then melts. Rei’s strong these days, looks like a big tall guy, and has more behind his eyes than makes sense to Ritsu--and Rei has an idea in his mind, apparently. 

It’s scary.

But Ritsu likes some scary things. He likes ghost stories, and horror stories, and whispers about blood and death in the middle of the night, and apparently he likes it when his big brother grabs his face and kisses him. His hands come up, tentative and a little hesitant, and clutch at Rei’s collar, dragging him closer. 

Then all of a sudden, he pulls away, eyes wide. “Door,” he whispers. “If Mom comes home she’ll kill you.”

The mention of their mother almost, _almost_  snaps Rei out of it…but not quite. If he had any sense left in his head, he’d pull back now, apologize, and boot Ritsu out of his room, shoving him away for the last time and making sure this didn’t happen.

He has _no_  sense left, and that’s pretty damn apparent when he stares at Ritsu for a long moment, then nods, jerks back, and stumbles his way to the door to shut and lock it. 

The speed in which he leaps back into bed can’t be underestimated, nor can the eagerness with which he grabs for Ritsu again, trying to be careful, trying to be gentle and not _scare him_ , but Ritsu’s the one grabbing at him just as hard, and kissing him feels so much _safer_  than kissing anyone else. 

Scary, Ritsu’s mind tries to shriek, but it’s Rei. Even when Rei does awful, scary things, Ritsu’s always liked it a little too much, a little more than he’d ever let on. Rei had locked him into a box once and practiced piano, and Ritsu had loved it, only screaming and wailing when their parents set him free because that was what normal kids did. Now Rei is holding him down, and Ritsu isn’t stupid. He’s heard all about this kind of thing at school. Danger, they’d said, and perversion, and molestation, and a bunch of words that don’t feel right for the way Rei makes him feel warm and hungry and only afraid a little. 

He wriggles, and kisses back, hands tangling in Rei’s hair, dragging him down with a broken whimper deep in his throat. “Onii-chan...”

_Disgusting, he’s disgusting how that goes straight to his cock. Rei’s breath stutters, his hands planting themselves into the bed instead of Ritsu’s hair or clothes, afraid he’ll be too rough when that simple Onii-chan sends a sharp curl of arousal deep in his belly. “Ritsu,” he breathes, kissing him hungrily instead, nibbling on his little brother’s lips before his tongue plunges past them, tasting him thoroughly, tasting his own blood on Ritsu’s tongue and groaning all the more because of it. “Ritsu…”_

_When he shifts, his thigh drags up between Ritsu’s legs. Feeling Ritsu’s hard cock against him gives him a nudge of encouragement, and Rei’s mouth drags to Ritsu’s throat, pressing hot, wet kisses along its pale column. “You can tell me to stop,” he whispers._

Ritsu shakes his head hard, lips parted at the pressure of his brother’s leg. He’s touched himself before, rutted against a pillow alone in the dark and quiet of his room, mind spinning wild fantasies. The idea that Rei wants to be a part of them--his big, cool, strong, secretive older brother that he looks up to so much--is a heady thing, and he wraps his limbs around Rei as if to hold him there by sheer effort, despite his lack of strength. His head tilts back, and he groans, high-pitched and breathy. “Touch it,” he pleads, cock hard in his pajama pants, harder than he ever remembers it being. “Need you to--feels weird--”

Rei cheerfully resigns himself to being the worst, _ever_ , and that’s fair, when he can’t bring himself to do anything but obey Ritsu’s pleading. His fingers shake, fumbling when his nails snag into the elastic of Ritsu’s pajama pants. “I’ll take care of you,” he breathlessly promises, because at least he’s not begging Ritsu to touch _him_ , just to tolerate this, just to let him dote, just a _little_ …

But Ritsu’s cock is hard and hot in his hand, not like some little kid’s, and that’s more of a relief than Rei ever thought it would be. He buries his face into the side of Ritsu’s neck, huffing out a hot, ragged breath when his fingers curl and stroke, his thumb rubbing firmly over the sticky tip.

Having someone else touch his cock doesn’t feel anything like touching his own, and Ritsu claps a hand over his own mouth, stifling a scream. Rei’s hand feels so good, so strong and careful and certain, that it only takes a few strokes before he jerks up, spilling over those elegant musician’s fingers in short, sharp twitches of his hips. “Onii-chan...onii-chan...hnn, feels good...ahhh...”

Rei inhales a long, steadying breath, and it does absolutely no good. The mess that Ritsu leaves all over his hand just makes him needier, more desperate, and he helplessly grabs for one of Ritsu’s hands, dragging it down to press against the outline of his own cock through his boxers. “You’re so cute, mine’s like this now, too,” he breathlessly says, a voice in his head warning him that he sounds like a total, gross pervert, but his filter is gone now that Ritsu just came all over his hand. 

“S’big,” Ritsu breathes. He looks up, dreamy and content and flushed, and pulls his hand back enough to delve under Rei’s waistband. “Take it out, I wanna see.” The last time he’d seen it had been in the baths a couple of years earlier, and it had looked like his own. His is bigger now, but Rei’s feels like something else entirely, hot and hard and huge, and Ritsu rubs his palm over the tip, watching Rei’s face for his reaction.

Rei curses underneath his breath, hurrying to yank his boxers down, and grabbing immediately for Ritsu’s hand again, his own hand shaking. Ritsu’s palm is so smooth and soft against his cock that Rei’s eyes flutter, and he bites down on his lip hard enough for it to hurt. “You can do whatever you want to it,” he helplessly says. Ritsu isn’t _fair._  

“Shouldn’t say that.” Ritsu is starting to get his breath back, and with it, his desire to tease, just a little bit. He wraps his hand around it again, fascinated, and squirms down until he’s face to, well, not _face_ exactly, but...

“Maybe I’ll bite it. I can hear your blood here really loud. Think it’d taste different than at your neck?”

“ _Please_  don’t bite it,” Rei groans, burying his face in one hand. What’s wrong with him that even _that_  doesn’t make his cock soft when Ritsu’s got his hand around it, huh? “If you’ve gotta bite down there, at least do the thigh, that’s sexy, like in those old vampire movies…” 

“The ones you used to sneak into my room when Mom was drunk?” 

Ritsu leans down, nuzzling into Rei’s thigh. His nose wrinkles. “Sweaty. When’s the last time you showered? Heh, just kidding.” He sinks his teeth into the soft skin there, hand tightening at the sudden bright flood of blood across his tongue, surging through his system like the most potent drug.

The ragged gasp that leaves Rei’s lungs brings him to grab blindly for the headboard of his bed and for Ritsu’s hair, his fingers twisting up into the silky-soft strands. Ritsu drinking from him like this is _much_  different than when…before, the other day, and Rei chokes down a whimper, his cock throbbing in Ritsu’s fingers. “You bite _hard_ ,” he gasps. “Be nice to me, Ritsu—“

Ritsu almost doesn’t stop--Rei tastes too good, makes his pulse race, coats his tongue and throat and fills his belly in a way nothing else ever has--but he slowly detaches, blood running from his lip in a narrow trickle as he looks up. “Onii-chan tastes so good,” he whispers, and obediently turns his attention to the hard length between his brother’s legs, letting both of his hands touch and stroke, mapping out every edge, ridge, and vein.

Ritsu _really_  isn’t playing fair now. Rei’s head feels like it’s floating above his body, the dizziness from losing even that much blood making him sag forward, his knees wobbling. A glance down at Ritsu is the worst and best decision he’s ever made—flushed and wide-eyed and a little bloody, with those pretty, pale fingers wrapped around his cock, Rei swallows, barely having the time to say: “R…Ritsu—could you—please, put your mouth on it, just for a sec—“

Not that Ritsu even gets the chance, because just the thought of it is enough, and Rei gasps when he comes, spilling over Ritsu’s fingers, dripping even onto his brother’s face and hair, and feeling all the more drained with every roll of sensation that rakes over him. “Sorry,” he groans, fumbling for one of his bedsheets to wipe Ritsu’s face off.

Ritsu makes a face, dragging his thumb through the mess and delicately flicking his tongue over it, then wiping the rest on the bedsheet. “Bleh. You wanted me to put that in my mouth?”

“Just for a _second_ ,” Rei grouses, wiping the rest off of Ritsu’s face carefully before he finally gives up and flops sideways, sprawling out. “If you hate me now, I get it.”

Ritsu climbs up, nuzzling into Rei’s neck and chest again, tugging the blanket over them both. “Yeah. Onii-chan is basically the worst. Nn, you want a drink? You look sleepy.” He lets his head loll to the side, exposing his neck.

Rei wavers, considering it, and then shakes his head, using all of his willpower to glance away. “I don’t want to somehow hurt you by doing it so soon,” he murmurs, throwing his arms around Ritsu to pull him close. “Just stay in bed with me, okay?”

“Okay.” 

Ritsu frowns, threading his fingers with Rei’s, yawning hugely. “You didn’t think I’d hate you. Did you?”

“…Yeah.” Rei stuffs his face down into Ritsu’s hair, breathing in deep. “Yeah, I did. That’s…why I’ve been avoiding you for awhile, you know. I’m pretty fucked up.” 

“No. You’re just dumb.” Ritsu’s voice is as forceful as he can make it when he’s so sleepy, and he butts his head against Rei’s neck. “If you do that again I’m gonna find you again. You can’t run away from me. You’re the only thing I’ve got.”

“Just put a tracking device on me, then I don’t have a choice,” Rei sleepily agrees, shutting his eyes at the relief that washes over him. _You’re the only thing I’ve got, too._  “Ritsu, I love you.” 

“Gross, Onii-chan,” Ritsu mumbles sleepily, because that’s what little brothers do. And because he’s never been a very good little brother, he flops one hand up onto Rei’s ass, squeezing like a stuffed animal. “Love you, too.”


	2. Chapter 2

Sakuma Rei is different.

Oh, Wataru has met geniuses before. He’d gone to the finest school his adoptive parents’ money can buy, and met plenty of people he’d be pleased to stand beside onstage. He’s working with one of them now, and loves it. Rei is a genius, of course, but he’s more than just a talented human. He’d swear to it, by something anyone who believes in anything holds dear.

Rei is also sort of high-strung, but Wataru isn’t afraid. What he _dislikes_ is when that high-strung personality is causing his show to suffer, the show that Shu and he have worked so hard on for weeks. He’s not afraid of anything in this lifetime that he’s ever encountered, so after rehearsal ends, he flutters over, blazer trailing behind him down to his knees. He drapes an arm around Rei’s shoulders (up, the boy is taller than he) and sing-songs, “Sakuma-kuuun, your violin makes my heart sing☆! Perhaps you could be a _titch_ less, ah, confrontational with the rest of the orchestra? That blowup today was _delightful_ to watch, but may I recommend asserting your Concertmaster dominance _outside_ of the pit?”

It takes effort for Rei not to bare his teeth. That never goes over well; humans react one of two ways: being terrified, or being perplexed that he’s ‘wearing’ fangs. Wataru seems like he’d be the latter, but that requires explaining, and explaining things to an obnoxious theatre kid doesn’t seem like his idea of a good time. “Tell me not to be confrontational when they can play what’s put in front of them,” he snaps instead, shrugging Wataru off of him and turning back to packing his violin. “This is a waste of my time otherwise.”

“And yet, you signed up to play with an unknown pit band for an extracurricular performance. Why? I’d figured that it was just to show off how much better you are than everyone else, but now you seem frustrated that this is the case.” Wataru beams, as if this is the most pleasing thing in the world, and steps quickly in front of Rei, walking backward without checking over his shoulder. “Be as confrontational as you like, but don’t ruin my show.”

Rei scowls at Wataru, and ignores him for a moment, bending over his violin case and stuffing his sheet music away. Obnoxious first years telling him what to do isn’t something he enjoys—he gets enough of it in his unit, with that _horrific_  Hasumi Keito. “You know what,” he suddenly says, slamming his case shut and shouldering it, “you’re right. I _am_  frustrated, and this is just an outright waste of my time. Find someone else to play your damned music.” Music that just _happens_  to be extremely heavy on a violin soloist, because this little group _knew_  they could get him. _Hah! Have fun with that now._

Wataru’s face falls, and he moves to bow, a few feathers fluttering out of one sleeve. “We’ve gotten off to the wrong foot, haven’t we? Why not come to our little group meeting tonight? You might have fun--there are others a bit like you.” That _might_ work as a dangle.

The stare Rei fixes on him, all hooded, swirling red, is entirely uninterested. “I’m taking care of my little brother tonight. No thanks.” 

“You don’t want to meet others like you? Ah, well, my mistake.” Wataru brushes a braid back from his face, shrugging. “Run along. Is your brother human? Or is he like you?”

“What?” Rei hates the kneejerk response that his mind comes up with, but it’s so startling to be called out all of a sudden that he can’t help it. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he immediately lies, though now his mind is in overdrive, making him wonder _is it safe to drop this and walk away? how does he know? stupid fucking first year, he’s probably just screwing with me, but what if he isn’t, what about Ritsu, he can’t get hurt, I can’t let him get hurt—_

Wataru sighs. “How boring. I _did_ say there were others, didn’t I?” He turns, then calls very deliberately over his shoulder, “If you change your mind, I assume you can follow my scent, Sakuma-kun. Tonight should be enlightening!”

_Others? Others like what, though, like more vampires?_  Rei’s stare is wary against Wataru’s back as he watches him walk away. _The last thing I need to deal with is more vampires._

The idea is a terrifying one. Rei debates throughout his last practice of the day if he should go, or if he should just ignore the whole thing. Wataru is probably just fucking with him, but the more he thinks about it, the stranger Wataru smells, the odder his pulse is, the strange beat of his heart distracting and noisy. If he is a vampire—or something like it—the sooner he can find out about it (and keep him away from Ritsu), the better. 

Which is how Rei ultimately finds himself outside of a strangely dilapidated house in a rather nice area of Tokyo, with every single window clearly draped in lace curtains inside. Warily, he knocks, stepping back from the door defensively, just in case.  

The person who opens the door is not Wataru, but one Itsuki Shu, currently in the middle of a ravaging puberty. His shoulders are set firmly, but there’s a relaxed, easy air about him that never manifests at school, at least not around strangers. He looks Rei up and down, then calls, “Wataru, you were right! He’s here!”

“Just a moment, darling, I’m running the bath!”

Shu huffs, then opens the door farther. “Come in, Sakuma-kun. You can leave your violin with my dolls, as long as you don’t knock into them.”

Itsuki Shu, Rei knows, is _very_  human. The course of his blood is like every other humans, if not slightly faster, courtesy of his nature. Rei still regards him warily, fairly sure there’s something he’s missing. “…I’ll keep hold of it, thanks,” he stiffly says, stepping inside and toeing off his shoes. Inside, there’s lace everywhere, and it looks rather like he’s stepped into an antique shop. _This_  he doesn’t hate. “You’re the one that wrote Hibiki’s stupid show, aren’t you. Nice house.” 

“The show is flawless,” Shu says easily, condescendingly, shutting the door behind Rei. “But thank you for your inferior opinion. I’m making tea, which you probably don’t appreciate.”

Hibiki Wataru flutters down the stairs without seeming to touch them, beaming. Behind him, the sound of running water stops, followed by a few happy splashing sounds. “Sakuma-kun, you made it! Do you eat? Other than the obvious, of course.”

Shu clicks his tongue over his shoulder. “Vampires, in my grandmother’s house. She’d have a fit if she knew.”

“Your music composition is terrible and you’ll need to dumb it down if you want them to continue on without me,” Rei defensively snaps, on-guard from the far too casual way that _everything_  is brought to light. Speaking of light—there’s been far too much of it today, and if the sun doesn’t go down already, he’s fairly sure he’s going to die. Shu smells appetizing enough, Wataru makes his stomach turn, and there’s a third, _somewhere_ , which makes him uneasy. His knees wobble, and he clutches at his violin case unhappily. “If you think I’m not quitting because I showed up here, you’re wrong.”

“I couldn’t care less if you quit,” Shu snaps, grabbing an antique teapot with the utmost delicacy, carefully setting it on the stove to boil. “I’m quite used to the others being left behind by my genius.”

“Shu-kun is a true genius. Isn’t that nice?” Wataru swivels a chair, straddling it and leaning cheerfully on one hand. “It’s been so long since I met one that wasn’t a bit _other_ , but he’s just eleven kilos of human in a ten kilo bag, and I do like that.”

“You say things that don’t really sound like compliments as if they’re compliments, Wataru.”

“If you don’t care that I quit, then enjoy your show sounding like shit.” Rei glowers at them both, then around the room, needing to distract himself from being so annoyingly hungry. Tucked away on the opposite wall is an antique piano, and he soothes himself by dropping down on the bench. “If _he’s_  human, what are you?” 

“Something old.” Wataru beams. “Something so old I don’t need to feed on anything as physical as blood. Something hungrier than you’ve ever been.” 

“Something that needs to drink his tea,” Shu says firmly, placing a cup in front of him, then settling down with a bolt of fabric and scissors. “If you can do anything with that thing, you’re welcome to plunk away at it. Just don’t play chopsticks, that gives me a dreadful headache.”

Rei stares at Wataru for a moment longer before just turning away to face the piano, and plays one chord before cringing. “How dare you leave this creature like this,” he mutters, standing up and cracking open the top of the piano before stooping back down to his violin case, fishing out his tuning wrench. “You’re all terrible, I’m definitely quitting now.” 

“If you quit, you can’t tune my piano,” Shu says firmly, setting a cup of tea on a table next to the piano. “It would be weird.”

Wataru drains his tea, then stands, announcing, “I’m going to make sure our fourth party hasn’t drowned. He misses his tail so much.”

“I’m quitting because your piano hasn’t been tuned, get it right!” 

“I haven’t drowned~” 

Soaking wet and barely clothed, Shinkai Kanata slowly drips his way down the stairs, trailing water after him. “The water stopped being salty…” he sadly says, slithering down to the floor. “So it stopped reminding me of the sea…” 

“Don’t tell me, he’s a mermaid,” Rei crossly mutters, bent over the piano and tweaking its tuning pins with (irritated) precision.

“Of course.” Shu grabs a pink frilly apron and starts cooking without any regard to the personal preferences of his guests. “Anyone with half a brain could have worked that out five minutes after meeting him.”

“Indeed. How delightful! To have three different ones in such a small place...” Wataru laughs, squeezing Kanata around the shoulders, heedless of how wet he is. “It’s amazing!”

Kanata flops sideways like a fish at Wataru’s feet, content to lie in his own puddle of water. “Bubble, bubble…” 

“What the hell,” Rei says to no one in particular, not looking up from his task. The twang of the piano’s old strings makes him grimace, but it’s getting there. “Is this what you do, Hibiki? Collect lunatics that think they’re something they aren’t?” He hasn’t once admitted he’s a vampire, so _maybe_  Ritsu is still safe.

“Oh, darling, I’ve met more things in my lives than you can name. It’s just been so long since I had friends. Here, pick a card, any card, I’ll make it worth your while.”

“Pick a card,” Shu says with a sigh. “Or he’ll be unbearable.”

“I’m not going to pick a damned card. This is why all of your music sucks!” Rei snaps, seconds from throwing his wrench at Shu. “Your piano is _crying_ , have you even named her? What kind of man are you?” 

“One who composes on a computer rather than a dusty old relic my ridiculous grandmother left behind. Obviously.”

“And you call yourself a genius. You should be ashamed.” 

“What do you call yourself, O Vampire Violinist?” Shu demands, aggressively washing a pot of rice. “If you can’t play the composition, I’ll just have Kanata sing it. He can sound enough like strings.”

“I can play it in my sleep. It’s the rest of your damned orchestra that can’t follow along!” Rei plucks and pulls, gritting his teeth when he has to forcibly unstick an old pin that has gotten rusted on—no wonder the piano sounds the way it does, _ugh._  “A _real_  musician isn’t going to let a computer do all the work for him.”

“They’re gonna fight…” Kanata hums, reaching up to pat Wataru’s knee. “Wataru. I’ll pick a card for you…”

“Thank you, my friend. Any you like, there are many choices and they’re all blue, that should make you happy.”

“I’m far better than a mere _musician_ ,” Shu scoffs, putting the rice cooker on to boil. “I’m a genius. Why should I care about the feelings of the people who merely play the compositions? Words are where the true power is.”

“And that kind of thinking is why your music is terrible.” With a last, final pull on the wires, Rei rocks back, more or less satisfied. “One of you lot, give me an A.”

Immediately, Kanata hums the note in question, all while picking a card out of Wataru’s deck. Rei shrugs off the oddness of the very wet blue blob on the floor, and double-checks the tuning in question before plopping back down onto the bench, pleased with his work.

“You look happy,” Wataru says, pleased as he threads his fingers through Kanata’s wet hair. “Are you happy to smell someone new? Don’t eat him, he’s a friend.”

Shu starts cutting into the bolt of fabric, looking exasperated. “Stop indulging him, Wataru. He has to start acting normal sometime, or school is going to destroy him.”

“Bubble, bubble…mm…he’s good, has a good scent,” Kanata hums, butting his head up against Wataru’s hand. “Salty, like the sea…”

“Why am I _salty?_ ” Rei incredulously asks, then gives up with a huff of breath, setting his hands to the piano. This group is too weird, too troublesome, and this poor, old piano is only barely in tune enough to be played, but it’s something. “If you two aren’t human,” he mutters, distractedly plucking out a few chords, and once he’s satisfied that the piano is decent enough, he lets those fade into absent-minded Mixolydian improv, “why are you wasting your time here?” 

“Chiaki,” Kanata answers without a moment’s hesitation. Rei decides to ignore him, because Wataru at least usually sounds more coherent.

“Searching for a reason to stay,” Wataru sighs. Eventually, he takes the card from Kanata’s uninterested hand, shuffling its wet fabric together with his others. “Or a muse worthy of it.”

“Stop looking at me like that, Wataru. I’m not giving you any of my life force.”

“Can’t blame a fae for trying! Honestly, Shu, you’d be magnificent...”

Kanata neatly karate chops Wataru’s leg. “Not Shu,” he reminds Wataru. “He has to live. Mm, that’s the deal.” 

“Fae—like, a faerie?” Rei abruptly interrupts, twisting around on the piano bench to squint at Wataru. “You do kind of look like that, I suppose. God, even Ritsu wouldn’t believe any of this,” he mutters.

“The brother,” Wataru explains to Kanata and Shu. “Sakuma-kun is very protective of him, isn’t that sweet?”

Shu shrugs. “Doesn’t mean much to me. My family’s always been a hinderance.”

“Ritsu, Ritsu…ahh…isn’t he the cute one…the one in our class?” Kanata ponders, tilting his head nearly entirely sideways. “Very small, very shy…Shu, you were admiring him…” 

“Ahh, the one with the shorts? That’s right, I saw him when I went to book the practice rooms. Ah, I was wondering if I should try to get him to join up, I like it when they’re shy and small--”

Rei stops short of shoving his fist through the piano. Instead, he’s in Shu’s personal space in an instant, slamming his hands down in front of him, leaning in within sparse centimeters of his face, fangs flashing. “If you as much as breathe the air around him,” he breathes, eyes bright, “I’ll kill you.” _And you’re human, so I know I can._

There’s a moment where Shu’s breath comes fast, panicky, and thready. Then his eyes roll back, hands dropping to the ground with the rest of him as he faints, crumpling into a heap on the floor of his kitchen.

Wataru stands, clicking his tongue in a startling approximation of Shu. “Oh, dear. That is an aggressive side of you, isn’t it? I can’t say I dislike it, but do step away, I have become invested in his well-being.”

Rei straightens up with an irritated exhale, folding his arms across his chest. “If he’s so easy to scare, then he should learn to keep his mouth shut. Fucking creep,” he mutters. At least he’s _pretty_  sure that Shu won’t even look at Ritsu anymore, which is a job well done. 

“Bubble, bubble…” Kanata sadly says, reaching out to gently poke at Shu’s unconscious body. “Maybe he needs a nice bath…”

“He’ll come around in a moment, he always does.” Wataru plucks Shu off the ground with one hand and what looks like no effort at all, settling him onto an overstuffed old couch with a crocheted blanket thrown over it. “Now, then, Sakuma-kun, now that you’ve been kind enough to excuse the human from our presence. How many in your hive? I’d hate to have to leave town quickly if it’s anyone I know.”

Kanata calmly crawls up onto the couch, plastering his wet body to Shu’s, as if that’s accomplishing something other than making them _both_  wet. Rei watches that for a second before shaking his head. “If you’re assuming that I spend time with a disgusting group of bloodsuckers, you’d be wrong,” he stiffly says. “It’s just me.” _And my brother_ —but if Wataru is out to eat him or something like it, he’s not hearing about Ritsu.

Wataru raises an eyebrow. “But you’re so young. Just looking at your eyes I can tell that much. So there are others in town...ah, but I’m starting to grow quite attached to this place.” He sounds mournful, thinking of times he’d had to leave sooner than his nature appreciated. “I haven’t even found what I’m looking for in such a ripe hunting ground, too.”

“I don’t associate with them.” And that’s enough of that, honestly. Rei turns away, going back to the piano. “And I don’t know what your shtick is—nor do I really care—but I’ll tell you the same thing I told your writer over there. Keep it away from my little brother.” 

“Oh, I have no interest in your little brother.” Entirely true, for what it’s worth. Ritsu is by far the inferior brother in terms of talent, and Wataru only wants the best, the strongest--and the most ambitious, which describes the opposite of the sleepy, uninterested boy he’d met twice. “You’re welcome to him. And don’t worry about poor Shu, he’s harmless. Right, Kanata?”

“Shu’s a good boy,” Kanata agrees, all four limbs around the unconscious Shu at this point. “That’s why he gets to be immune…”

Sure, whatever that means. Rei glowers at Kanata (and by proxy, Shu). “Good, you’d all do well to leave him alone,” he mutters. “If you invited me here in some strange attempt to make sure I’m not stealing your prey, that’s stupid, by the way. We’re obviously not the same…kind.”

“Of course not! That would be low, common, and rather base of us, don’t you think?” Wataru pulls a violet from midair, idly toying with the stem. “More of a solidarity effort, rather than a territorial dispute. And of course, I thought if could see you weren’t alone, you might feel a bit less hostile at school.”

“I’m not hostile. Everyone else is just talentless and annoying.” Also, who came up with the bright idea that school has to be during the _day?_

“Then forget them. Spend time with us. Imagine what we could create, mon cher! With your musicality, my theatricality, Shu’s fragile genius, Kanata’s _je ne sais quois!_ ”

“If you forget my sea friends one more time, I won’t be happy~” Kanata hums, still stroking Shu’s hair with wet, wet hands.

Rei wavers. It doesn’t sound awful, the idea of actually associating around those that have any semblance of talent, that aren’t just there to sparkle and earn a few bucks because they have a pretty enough face. “…then boot the rest of the orchestra, and make Shu rewrite the music for a soloist only,” he bluntly says. “Because I’m not wasting my time with idiots that make me sound bad. I can play more than just violin, so it’s a nonissue.”

“When you can play violin and piano and drums at the same time,” Shu says groggily, blinking his eyes open, “I’ll consider it. Wataru isn’t _making_ me do anything. Kanata, please, I’m quite moist.”

“Your casserole is burning, Shu,” Wataru says merrily.

“You need to be moist! Then your skin won’t bubble off, bubbling is only good in the sea…” 

Rei huffily turns back to the piano. “Do you know how easy it would be to turn your entire composition into a piano concerto? You’re all the worst, I should just drain you dry.”

Shu lets out a pained noise, heaving himself up from the sofa with a distracted pat to Kanata’s leg, then one to his head. “Thank you, friend.” He wavers for a moment, blood pulsing through his head in a frantic, thready pulse, then starts off towards the kitchen. “You think it’d sound better that way? I couldn’t care less. Show me how it sounds on a piano, then.”

“Where’s your full score? Oh, never mind, I remember it well enough.”

The opening solos would sound better on violin—or a piano that isn’t hundreds of years old and tuned for the first time in fifty years fifteen minutes ago—but Rei brushes that off. He remembers most of the composition, even though the orchestra had fumbled their way through it, and quickly, neatly melds it all together on the piano. Even on an antique piano, hearing the chords played _correctly_ , not with the dissonance and lack of timing that so many other ‘idols’ at this school possess, makes Rei relax into playing, his shoulders relaxing and lowering as he makes swift melodic work of the opening piece. “…Anyway,” he exhales, spinning the last cord off into a blues riff that has nothing to do with _anything_  classical, “isn’t that better?”

Shu purses his lips, folding his arms in a way that Wataru instantly recognizes. It’s Shu’s way of expressing unintentionally that he realizes he’d been incorrect. “Very well,” he says at last, with apparently great personal effort. “Hell, play whatever you want if you play it like that and it makes my words sound as perfect as they are. But that last part--what is that, jazz? That doesn’t belong in a proper composition.”

“I think it’s amazing!” Wataru hops up onto the table, kicking his legs out with a laugh. “We should delight in this moment, savor it--who knows how long it will be until we have to destroy each other? For now, let’s luxuriate and become the best of friends!”

“…Has anyone ever told you that you’re really fucking morbid?” Rei flatly asks, idly picking his way through the rest of his improv. “Don’t worry, I’m not turning your show into jazz, I know it doesn’t sell,” he adds before Shu can start huffing at him (again). 

“Wataru,” Kanata breathes, pawing slowly at Wataru’s hair. “Wataru. Make me another bath, I need to go soak so I can think about things…”

“Of course, my beloved friend! We wouldn’t want you to tragically dry out, would we?” Wataru springs up, leading the way to Shu’s old claw-footed bathtub.

Shu leans back against the counter, tapping a finger on his forearm before pulling the casserole out of the oven. It smells bad, but most food smells bad to him, so it’s probably fine. “Were you always better than everyone else?” he asks, without a hint of sarcasm. “Or only after you stopped being human?”

Rei decides not to comment on Shu’s cooking, which seems…questionable, at best. Maybe if it were tomatoes, this could have been a good night. “I had a violin shoved in my hand since I was three years old and I’ve spent nights practicing until I couldn’t feel my fingers. Yeah, I’ve always been better.” He picks briefly at the chipped polish on one of his nails, then shrugs, setting his hands back to the piano to play through another piece from Wataru and Shu’s show by ear. “It was only last year that I was turned, and it only made shit harder, so I don’t consider it an advantage at all. If anything, it’s a disadvantage.” 

“Except you have forever.” Shu’s eyes glint, seeing much farther than his own kitchen. “You can shape history, create the sort of future you want to live in forever. You have infinite chances to get it right, to clean up all of the garbage and dust, to see _farther_ than anyone else. Ah--do a run for a boy soprano, would you? There’s a lovely little thing I want to write for.”

“That’s the idea, but don’t normal vampires stop aging? I haven’t.” It’s shockingly cathartic to just…admit it. It’s one thing to have Ritsu in the same boat as him, but Rei always finds himself treading carefully, not wanting to scare Ritsu about any new, strange thing he finds out about being a vampire, and every other human just laughs, dismissing the idea entirely (not that he can blame them). He pauses, then switches keys, plucking out notes in a much higher range. “Major or minor?” Shu does seem like a minor kind of guy, though.

“Minor, obviously. Something sort of like...hmm..” Shu hums a few notes, then repeats them. “That’s the leitmotif. I want to show off his voice, but without anything too complicated so he can focus on his dancing. Have you created a unit yet, Sakuma?” He reaches over for one of his dolls, a sweet-faced brunette he hasn’t redressed for ages. Yes, she could use a new silk dress.

“A very terrible one,” Rei mutters, immediately plucking out the notes on the piano and pulling them down into each chord, veering quickly towards the baroque—because if anyone enjoys that kind of thing, it’s Itsuki Shu. “I want my brother to be in a unit with me, but he’s still too shy, and I don’t want to push him. Until then, I’ll kill time, I guess…” 

“Ooh, that, that sounds good.” Shu abandons the dress, moving closer to lean over Rei’s shoulder, one hand picking out a high counterpoint. “I’ve only found one person worthy of joining me so far, but I’ll find others. Or I won’t. There aren’t too many people I can stand to be around, you know.”

Rei opens his mouth to scold Shu for being a writer, a _composer_ , and still not knowing how to properly play the piano, but shuts it when he begrudgingly acknowledges Shu’s excellent ear. Well, whatever. He can’t be a genius at everything.  “I’ll put up with just about anyone if they listen and have talent, but I’m losing my sense of humor with Hasumi Keito, considering he has neither,” he grouses, changing keys again, still staying minor, and taking a page out of Bach’s book, because now, Itsuki Shu is easy to play for. “I should’ve listened to my parents, and gone to a real music school, but the idea of doing _anything_  they say makes me want to die.” 

“All music schools teach you is how to make music,” Shu says bluntly. “At least Yumenosaki acknowledges the point of marketing, which I loathe, but I acknowledge the point. I’d rather learn to make a career of all my talents, as difficult as it may be.” His eyes flick over to the fabric on the table. “Design--at a music school, they’d scoff at such a thing, not realizing just how integral to an idol’s success it is.” His hand dances over the keys, back to half-remembered lessons from years ago, playing for the fun of it now instead of trying to compose. “And Hasumi Keito is a pathetic third-rate hack.”

Rei snorts out a laugh. “He’s a frumpy brat, I don’t know why he wanted to join my unit so badly,” he admits, slamming his hands down into a jazz chord before letting them rest, shaking out one of them with a sigh. “If I thought I could get a job and get the fuck out of here in music school, that’s still where I’d be. But you’re right—Yumenosaki’s all about marketing, and I need that.”

Shu brings his hands to rest, then immediately returns to his patternmaking, cutting up the little dress with brisk strokes of the scissors. “Is that thing any good, by the way? I know nothing about pianos. You’re welcome to do as you like with it.”

“It needs a bit more servicing,” Rei says, giving the piano a gentle pat. “But she’s very good. Ahh, I might be biased, I love antiques and old things…”

Shu raises one eyebrow. Carefully, he straightens the skirts of the doll he’s clothing, before he starts work on her bodice. “You’ll likely enjoy my home, then. As you should. This doll, for example, is over a hundred and fifty years old. I despise the notion that something is good just because it’s new.”

“Ah…yeah, you’ve got a cool house. And a lot of pretty dolls.” And he’s going to leave it at that, because Shu is definitely one of those weird doll people. “My dad’s the CEO of an electronics company,” Rei explains with a roll of his eyes. “So you can imagine how obsessed _he_  is. Just to piss him off, I don’t even carry a cell phone—ah, which reminds me, can I borrow yours, super quick.” 

Shu pulls the phone out of a pocket he’d particularly crafted for such a purpose, specifically designed so he wouldn’t have an unsightly bulge. “My father likes cars. Pathetically pedestrian. I have no use either for them or him, quite honestly.”

“Parents are the worst, huh?” Rei mutters, hunching down over the phone and swiftly typing in Ritsu’s number. “I’m surprised he lets you have a bunch of lunatics over. My dad’s never home, but my mom freaks out if I bring anyone home. Or, well, she used to. She’s been out of town and it’s _nice._ ” 

To: Ritsu

**Subject: this is rei—sorry!!!**

**borrowing someone’s phone. i got dragged into a meet-up for that stupid play i’m playing in the orchestra for. i’ll be late, can you order-in italian? or do you need me to do it?**

**To: ???**

**Subject: :/**

**can we still eat garlic bread??? ive been nervous to ask since u bit me but i really miss it.**

“I thought it might be a bit lonely at first, but...” Shu sighs, and finally digs a wooden spoon into his burned casserole, popping out a congealed mass of rice, corn, mayonnaise, and spaghetti. He picks at it, and makes a face. “Ugh, food still disagrees with me. I’ve never been able to eat much.”

**To: Ritsu**

**Subject: listen**

**if i can’t eat tomato sauce i’m going to die. i’ll eat the garlic bread first to test it and see what happens.**

**“…Maybe it’s because that looks fucking scary,” Rei bluntly offers up in the brief moment he glances up from Shu’s phone. “Give up and order takeout.”**

**“What, and talk to someone on the phone? I’d rather starve.” That’s probably what’s going to happen, now that he’s living on his own. Shu can’t bring himself to care too much, when food has always been something of a disappointment.**

To: ???

**Subject: my hero**

**im getting more than is responsible**

**To: Ritsu**

**Subject: good**

**waste all of dad’s stupid money i’ll be home in an hour**

**“…Oookay,” Rei exhales, setting Shu’s phone back onto the kitchen counter. “Make Hibiki call for you or something, then. Thanks for the antique piano experience, but I’ve gotta go home.”**

**Shu waves a hand, uncaring once more as he picks at the foul mess on his plate. “The door isn’t precisely barred to you, if you want to return for more antique experiences. Doubtless Wataru will rope you into something or another. He’s good at that.” He pauses for a moment, then adds, “Don’t be late for practice tomorrow.”**

To that, Rei merely grunts, shouldering his violin case as he heads towards the door. “If that horrible ‘orchestra’ is there when I show up, I’ll turn right back around. Keep that in mind.” 

With that, he leaves, makes his way to the nearest train station, and tries to ignore being so hungry that he wants to die. 

He blames Shu. Shu smells _good_ , fucking delicious, in fact, and it’s distracting enough that it lingers with him until he gets home, unlocking the door and kicking his shoes off grumpily. “Ritsu,” he wearily calls out, leaving his violin at the door. “Where’s the garlic bread that I need to die for?” 

“Too late, I’m already dead.” 

A crust of garlic bread lays crumbled on the table, and Ritsu’s cheeks are stuffed, his pants unbuttoned, a look of bliss on his face. “There’s way more left, though. Doesn’t kill us. Onii-chan, come sit with me, you smell crazy good.”

“If you had died, I would’ve had to go and kill a delivery man,” Rei groans, stumbling into the room and snatching up the first stick of bread he sees, and dunks it into a copious amount of tomato sauce. He slithers down into a chair with the first bite, his eyes shutting in bliss. It’s not blood, but close _enough._  “I think we’re shitty vampires,” he says after a moment. “What kind of vampires can eat garlic?” 

“I dunno. But strawberry sauce kinda does it for me, too.” Ritsu cocks his head, tilting it to one side. “You think maybe we’re not, like, full-vamp? Cuz you definitely look older than you did when you turned me. And I’m growing still. But we’re definitely not, like, _human_ -human.”

“Maybe…” Rei dunks more of his bread, and downs it in short order. “At least tomato sauce makes _sense_ , though, what with iron and all—but strawberry sauce? Seriously?” 

“It’s yummy.” Ritsu snuggles up, laying his head on Rei’s shoulder, then starts sniffing again. “Why do you smell so _good_? Makes me wanna eat you instead of food, hmm...”

“It’s a human’s fault,” Rei murmurs, batting Ritsu away half-heartedly. “The one that’s in charge of this stupid production I’m doing—he smells _so_  good, it’s distracting. I thought about drinking from him,” he crossly says. “But I think he’s off-limits, or something. He’s weird enough that he probably wouldn’t mind, what a shame.” 

Ritsu nuzzles into his brother’s neck, sniffling and whuffling a little, distracted from the food for the moment, ignoring the swat. “Onii-chan, you smell so good, lemme have a taste, you’ve been gone _all_ day...”

“Ritsuuu, at least let me finish dinner,” Rei bemoans, even as he grumpily obliges, shoving his hair out of the way and letting his head flop to the side as he munches on his breadsticks and marinara. “Go on, then,” he huffs around a mouth of bread. “Needy brat.”

Ritsu is gentler than usual, nibbling with sharp fangs until he pricks the skin just slightly, swiping his tongue over the puncture wound, then moving on to another one after just a few drops. “Being nice,” he breathes, scooting up onto his knees. “Right? I’m being nice, right, Onii-chan? I’m a cute little brother, right?”

Ritsu _is_  being nice, which a relief after the day he’s had. It’s actually sort of soothing, and Rei sighs long and easy, reaching up a hand to pet Ritsu’s hair, his eyes lidding. “Yeah…yeah, you’re being nice, and you’re super cute. Mmn, why the sudden concern? Did someone tell you that you weren’t cute?” _I’ll kill them, I really will._  

Ritsu pulls away, making a face. “Dad came home. He’s gone now, don’t worry, but...he was here.”

Rei freezes, every relaxing muscle doing a swift turn in the opposite direction. “Is he coming back? Why the hell did he even bother if he wasn’t going to stick around?” Not that he _wants_  their dad to stick around, but it’s the principle of the thing.

“Nn, he was just getting some papers he forgot.” Ritsu grabs his brother around the waist, pulling him close. “Don’t get all tense, he didn’t do anything. Just made me want you.”

Rei wavers, but it doesn’t take long before he begrudgingly downs the rest of his cup of sauce and settles for wrapping both arms around Ritsu instead. “If he said anything mean to you, please don’t tell me,” he quietly says. “I’ll just get pissed off, and killing our dad sounds pretty inconvenient.” 

“Mm, he ignored me.” He hadn’t, but Rei is already worked up, already stressing, and that’s not going to make for a fun evening. It hadn’t been anything he couldn’t deal with by himself, at least. “You know how he gets when there’s a deal going on. Better you weren’t there.”

Ritsu’s lying, but Rei decides to just ignore it for his own sanity. Picking his battles, that’s the way to go. He buries his face into Ritsu’s shoulder, nuzzling straight into his neck. “Lucky me,” he exhales slowly. “Thanks for dealing with him. Whatever he said, ignore it; I think you’re the cutest, Ritsu.” 

“Told you, he didn’t say anything. Onii-chan, you need a drink? You look so hungry.” He flips his hair out of the way, offering the smooth skin of his neck, long since healed to the point of smoothness by his quick healing factor. That’s going to be much more interesting to his brother than their stupid dad, he hopes.

_Starving is the word, I’m starving._  Rei intensely blames his eagerness on Itsuki Shu—no, wrong, he blames it far more on Hibiki Wataru. He mouths a soft, wet kiss there as his lips part, his fangs gently scraping against the skin in warning before he bites. He can’t just nibble like Ritsu can, or it’s a million times worse later. He has to actually _bite_ , and take a solid swallow of blood (or two, in this case) before he’s anywhere near remotely satisfied. “Better,” he breathes when he breaks away, licking at his lower lip. “Sorry—was that too much?” 

Ritsu wavers for a moment, slightly dizzy, and clutches at Rei’s shirt. “Onii-chan,” he breathes, climbing awkwardly onto Rei’s lap, straddling his thighs, “you know that makes me hard. You’re gonna be nice to your cute little brother, right?” Had he ever had shame? If so, he’s forgotten it completely in the past year as a vampire.

Ritsu is impossible resist on any given day, but today, it’s even worse. _I’m probably a worse, needier brat than he is,_  Rei wryly thinks, and his arms encircle Ritsu’s waist in short order, hauling him deeper into his lap as he presses another kiss to Ritsu’s throat. “Mm…whatever you want,” he murmurs, nuzzling just underneath his chin. “Tell me how you want Onii-chan to take care of you.” If Ritsu is asking for it, _demanding_ , there’s nothing gross about obliging him, obviously.

“You should put it in me.” 

He’s tried being coy and cute about it before, tried hinting at it before, tried riling Rei up and spreading his legs before, but Rei has always deferred, opting to satisfy him with lips and hands and that laughing smile. So, no more hints. Ritsu winds his arms around his brother’s neck, grinding slowly down against his hips, feeling an answering hardness flare to life. It’s quick, after biting. He knows. “I know what ‘m talking about, Onii-chan. I wanna.”

It’s a good thing Rei is _sitting_ , and Ritsu’s in his lap and clinging to him, or else he’d bolt and dump his little brother on the floor right then and there. “A…ah,” Rei says with a nervous laugh, swallowing hard and making a concerted effort not to let his dick get harder with that particular thought—he’s not _that_  gross, right? _Wrong!_  his body cheerfully reminds him, and his fingers tighten against Ritsu’s hips. “What do you _mean_ , you know what you’re talking about? You’ve never done it before, so—“

Ritsu grabs one of Rei’s hands, then lowers it firmly to his ass, glaring now. “I’m thirteen, not _three_. You want me to say it in plain Japanese? Or English? About what I want where?”

“I—no, listen, Ritsu, you’re being loud and clear, that’s not…” Rei trails off, exhaling a long breath, and stares up at the ceiling when his fingers curl involuntarily against the curve of Ritsu’s ass. _Well, fuck._  “Once we do it that way—that’s a whole other level of fucked up. You’re fine with that? Tell me you are.” 

“Yeah, cuz we’re soooo normal now.” Ritsu snorts, then grinds down again, biting his lip, letting just one drop of bright red blood trail down his chin. “Onii-chan, if you don’t wanna, I’ll ask Maa-kun if _he’ll_ put it in me.”

Rei doesn’t expect the wave of irritation that washes over him from that statement alone, and he reacts before thinking it through, dumping Ritsu flat onto his back on the floor. “I’ll kill him if he does,” Rei lowly warns, following after Ritsu and shoving him down with a hand against his shoulder, his tongue trailing over the blood that escapes down Ritsu’s chin. “Ritsu, you’re _mine._ ” 

“Be niiice,” Ritsu whines, kicking his feet in delight. At least Rei looks like he’s going to _do_ something, whether he can actually get his brother to go the whole way or not. He grabs for Rei’s hair, yanking him close, biting at his lip for a fresh burst of taste. “Not even on a bed? You want my first time with a dick up my ass to be on the floor?” Not that he’s upset, not when Rei is _grabbing_ him like this.

Rei growls against Ritsu’s mouth, on the verge of telling him _yes, and you brought it on yourself!!_ —but good sense wins out briefly, because if their dad came home once today, there’s no telling if he will or not later.

With a groan of effort, he forces himself to pull back, and he snatches Ritsu up, tossing him over his shoulder. “You’re terrible,” he mutters, stalking his way to his bedroom. Once inside, he locks the door behind them, and dumps Ritsu unceremoniously onto his bed, waiting for him to right himself. “If you hate it, I’m probably going to go kill myself.”

Ritsu rocks up onto his knees, then grabs for Rei’s face, squeezing it firmly. “Onii-chan,” he says bluntly, “I’m not gonna hate it. I’ve been practicing. Every time you stay late at school. I want it to be you. If you make me ask again I’m gonna be _mad_.”

Rei’s mouth opens, then shuts, and after a moment’s pause, he finally nods, following the seemingly magnetic touch of Ritsu’s hands to crawl onto the bed after him. “Fine, fine, don’t get mad,” he murmurs, threading his fingers through Ritsu’s hair and drawing him up into a long, firm kiss. “If you practice whenever I stay late…” he trails off, his breath hiccuping, and his fingers curl into Ritsu’s waistband. “Then, today, too?” 

Ritsu’s eyes swirl and dance, and he shifts closer, rubbing his ass back at Rei’s questing hand. He thumbs his pants open, letting them hang open low on his hips. “You should probably look and see,” he suggests, swiping the tip of his tongue over his bottom lip, tasting Rei’s mouth on his own. “You might find a surprise.”

“When did you turn into such a cock tease?” Rei incredulously demands, though his voice is all the more breathless for it, especially when his hands shake around Ritsu’s hips. Easing his pants down, splaying his fingers over those pale, soft thighs—that’s all enough to make his cock ache, and Rei desperately tries to ignore that.

Easier said than done, when he tentatively reaches up between Ritsu’s thighs, ghosts a pair of fingers against his hole, and his mouth goes dry when it feels already slick, and just pressing the tip of one finger inside is already easy. “Fuck,” he mutters helplessly. “Ritsu…”

Ritsu exhales, a breathy, whining noise deliberately against Rei’s ear. He clings to Rei’s shoulders, painted nails pricking into the skin, pushing down against a finger where he finally wants it. “Onii-chan...f-feels good, I want more...” 

The helpful people on that forum sure had been right about how to drive him crazy, though he’d changed a few details so as not to get the cops called on them. Everything is slick and hot, pressing at his hole, teasingly sliding in, and his thighs tremble. “More...not teasing, just want you...”

Ritsu _does_  know what he’s doing, and Rei isn’t sure if he should be worried about that, or ridiculously turned on. At least, he isn’t sure for a second, before his mind settles on _turned on, really turned on!,_ and he can’t help but give in to what Ritsu wants, letting that first finger slide in to the second knuckle.

Ritsu feels so intensely hot, so _tight_  around just that finger that Rei forgets how to breathe for a moment. His head drops down against Ritsu’s shoulder, his breath hot against that pale skin. “Let me—let me play with you for a second, okay?” he whispers. “You’re so cute, Ritsu, I’m gonna die.”

Ritsu flops back, letting his thighs spread wide, every movement supple and eager. Sweat beads on his brow, and he swipes at it, grabbing at the sheets and fisting his hands in them. “Y-you can play with me as long as you want,” he murmurs, high and breathy. “S’long as you promise to put it in after. Onii-chan, feels good...”

Rei nods, and he scoots his knees closer, planting his other hand into the bed to brace himself when he curls that one, long finger inside of Ritsu, feeling the way he twitches and shivers. “I’ll put it in, I promise,” he rasps, and his hand shakes when he draws it back, just enough to wriggle a second finger in. The noise he chokes on when he feels how Ritsu squirms and squeezes around it definitely isn’t that cool, but he can’t help it, not when Ritsu looks like this, is _begging_  like this. A trickle of sweat drips from his hairline, and Rei shuts his eyes against the way his cock throbs. “You _know_  how good you look, don’t you?” 

For whatever reason, Rei’s two fingers feel much bigger than his own two, even his own three. They also feel _better_ , in him deeper, twisting and wriggling and making him writhe. Rei’s words don’t make sense at first, echoing around his empty head for a few wild moments before they resolve into Japanese, and he pants out, “Just...just want...to look good for you...want you...to want me...Onii-chan, feels good...”

Ritsu’s voice isn’t fair. It’s high, breathy, _whiny_ , and it goes straight to his cock with every single word. “I always want you,” he admits on a ragged laugh, grabbing clumsily for one of Ritsu’s hips, pulling him down onto his hand even more, loving the way Ritsu’s face flushes, the way his cock throbs, dripping between his legs when Rei curls his fingers, stroking, petting from the inside out. “I-if I put it in, you’re going to make me come so fast…”

Ritsu’s thighs tremble, but he manages to bring up a foot, kicking at Rei’s hip. “D-don’t do it if you’re not gonna do it _right_! Onii-chan, you gotta...you gotta...”

It’s too hard to put thoughts together when pleasure is wracking his body, slick and invasive and hot inside him, driving him to mindless hunger, making him clench down and whimper at the way Rei’s hand spreads him open. “It’s--it’s so--you gotta...nnnhh, feels _so good_ \--”

Rei wishes he had the excuse of _I’m only human_  nowadays, but that doesn’t fly when he’s already had his fill of his brother’s blood once this evening. Unable to resist any longer, he pulls his hand free, and makes quick work of shucking his own pants, kicking them to the floor and peeling his (now sweat-soaked) shirt over his head. “Hold on,” he whispers, reaching up underneath his own pillow, where there’s _definitely_  a bottle of lube stashed—and lo and behold, it’s much emptier than he recalls it being from the last time _he’d_  put it to good use. 

“…You’re the worst,” Rei mutters, squeezing out a generous amount into his hand and rubbing it down the length of his own cock. Just that touch alone makes his eyes glaze, and he grits his teeth, sucking in a sharp breath when he hurries to let the head of his cock nudge at his brother’s hole. “Fuck. You’re so little, Ritsu, are you sure—“

Ritsu squirms around, pulling his legs up to bare his hole, folding up almost flat, looking up into his brother’s red eyes with his own. Rei feels huge, the thick blunt head enough to make him suck in a breath, but he nods once, firmly. “Want you in me. I wanna...nnh, you know what I want!”

He bites his lip, pushing down as much as he can in this position, breath catching when Rei is so hard and hot against him, threatening to slip inside. “Go slow, okay?” he asks, voice small, but eager.

Rei nods, shutting his eyes briefly in a last, desperate plea for self-control. _Go slow_ —god, that’s the one request he wishes Ritsu had spared him, but he has to, he _has to_ , if he hurts Ritsu somehow, he’ll jump out of his damned window, he _will._

At least everything is so slick, and Ritsu is _so_  ready, that the first, aching push of his cock against that little hole is far easier than Rei thought it would be. Ritsu’s body seems to suck him in, wrapping tight and slick and velvety-hot around him, and Rei fumbles to sink one hand into the bed, the other grabbing for one of Ritsu’s legs, throwing it up and over his shoulder. “T-tell me…if it’s too much,” he pants out, his head thunking down against Ritsu’s shoulder, each careful rock of his hips sinking his cock in a little deeper each time, and consumes his sanity more and more.

Ritsu almost screams at the first sudden shove forward, but it steals the air from his lungs, enough that all he can do is squeak. His eyes go slowly wide, dilated hugely as he slowly adjusts to the thick stretch inside him. “O...hhh~....” he whispers, tears leaking out of his eyes, not from pain, just from being _overwhelmed_. “Nnh, that...that doesn’t...nnh, that’s not...as bad as I thought...nnh, it’s good, Onii-chan, it’s so good...”

Rei’s self-control quickly begins to fray, so he stills, adjusting as his chest heaves from the effort it takes not to just shove Ritsu down and _have him_. His knees slide up closer, his hands tremble as they clutch at Ritsu’s hips, at his thighs, anything to _carefully_  tug him down further. Glancing down is a mistake—his cock looks huge sinking inside of Ritsu, stretching him wide, and Rei’s breath is ragged when it escapes in a sharp exhale through his nose. “Ritsu,” he mumbles, lurching forward, mouthing a few wet kisses to his neck, to his shoulder. “Ritsu, I—you’ve gotta just—just let me fuck you through the mattress, please, it feels good, right?” 

“Just do it.”

Ritsu’s nails drag down Rei’s back, and his nostrils flare at the scent of blood, even the slightest bit clinging to his nails. He can’t move, not with Rei holding his legs like this, can’t do anything but give up, back arching with the slow heated burn of Rei sinking into him. 

“Just do it, Onii-chan...f-f--” No, the words aren’t quite coming, he doesn’t have Rei’s filthy mouth, but he can cling, and plead, and whine for everything Rei wants to give him, and _does_. “Feels good, do it hard--”

_Thank you, thank you, thank you._ If Ritsu had told him stop, he’s not sure he would have been able to, no matter how he tried, but here he is, begging so desperately instead, clawing holes into his back that make him arch with a ragged gasp. Rei’s mouth fastens to the curve of Ritsu’s shoulder, sucking, not biting yet, though he nearly does when he finally gives into the urge to shove in deep, until their skin slaps together, and the throaty, eager groan that escapes his throat can’t be helped. 

“You’re perfect, so perfect,” Rei breathes against his skin, kissing whatever he can reach as he ruts in hard, pulling Ritsu up into every roll of his hips. “You’re being so good—god, _Ritsu_ —“

Ritsu feels like his mind is melting. Words stop making sense, and he just squirms, wriggling as much as Rei’s hold on him will allow, then just collapsing back. His mouth is slack, broken moans dripping from his lip, hands clenching and unclenching in spasms, wanting to hold, too blissed out and wound up to move. His whole body seizes in a spasm of pleasure so intense it’s almost painful, and wet heat splatters all over his belly. “Onii-chan...please...” Nothing matters, nothing makes any sense but that glorious thick hardness shoving into him over and over, driving him to bliss.

If he had any self-control left in his body, it’s gone the second that he feels Ritsu come. That startlingly tight, _achingly_ hot squeeze of Ritsu’s body around him makes his own voice break, and Rei bites, not to drink, not even to mark, just to hold Ritsu in place when he grinds in helplessly, fucking him long and hard and deep, _needing_  to follow Ritsu towards something that feels that good. 

Maybe if he were less consumed by how good Ritsu feels, Rei would have the sense to pull out when his hips get too frantic, too erratic, but he can’t stop, and he comes with a broken groan against Ritsu’s throat, spilling deep inside. His fingers bruise when they bite into Ritsu’s hips, and Rei forces his mouth off of him before he bites too hard and actually rends flesh in the process.

Ritsu flops down to the bed, panting and gasping, wincing when his hole clenches involuntarily, stinging and slick around Rei’s cock. “Onii-chan,” he murmurs, lips curling in a Cheshire smile. “Now there’s no going back. I’m yours. Right?”

“No going back,” Rei dazedly agrees, butting his head gently up against Ritsu’s, nuzzling and kissing over his neck. He sags down, trying to keep most of his weight off of Ritsu and failing miserably when his bones feel like jello. “You were so good…Ritsu, Ritsu, you’re perfect…” 

“Squashing me,” Ritsu complains, with a huge yawning smile on his face. “So, does that mean I’m an adult now? Or do I have to wait until we do it the other way?”

Rei buries his face down into Ritsu’s hair, sleepy and content. “Mmn? You were an adult the second you _apparently_  stole all my lube—shit’s expensive, you know,” he mutters. Gingerly, painstakingly, Rei pulls out, snatching up his own shirt to wipe up the mess between Ritsu’s legs, thighs, and all over his belly. “If you want it the other way, you know you just have to ask.” 

“You’re glad I stole it,” Ritsu says between a yawn, toes curling when Rei swipes soft fabric over some delicate areas. “You didn’t want me going into this blind, did you?”

“No, but you’re still bad. The worst.” Rei flops down a second later, curling up next to Ritsu and grabbing him to haul him in close. “My cute little brother that bullies me. Not that I mind, I suppose…”

Ritsu makes a face when everything starts to _sting_ , but he doesn’t say anything out loud. He rubs his face on Rei’s chest, sleepily content. “You like it. If I left it up to you, you’d never do me.”

“Fair enough…” Rei tugs the blankets up, tucking them haphazardly around the both of them. He pets a hand down Ritsu’s back, distracted and content. “I just don’t want to hurt you. You’re too special, I’d die.” 

“Good. Don’t hurt me. Be nice to me. That’s good.” Ritsu sinks his teeth into Rei’s shoulder, barely pricking at the skin, and leaves them there, nodding off to sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

The plan is to sleep on the plane back to Japan, to be fresh and among the living when he arrives, but that’s easier said than done when Rei’s mind starts to fixate on the obvious. 

Home, but more importantly, _Ritsu, Ritsu, Ritsu._

Their parents aren’t even home when the taxi drops him off at their house. He can tell courtesy of an entirely empty driveway, their shiny, box-shaped cars absent. Every single window box full of flowers is empty, and Rei is sort of sadly relieved that he at least doesn’t have to see bunches of dead, dried up flowers there that his parents must have neglected in the year he was gone. 

His key still works, at least, and Rei turns it into the knob, nudging the door open.It’s a couple of hours past when school would be out--Ritsu has to be home, certainly, and Rei stifles a yawn as he toes off his shoes, setting his violin case and carry-on down at the door. “Ritsu?” he calls, shutting the door behind himself. “Ritsu, guess who’s home~” 

A door opens--to Rei’s room, not Ritsu’s--and there’s a sharp intake of breath, then the sound of a door slamming shut.

Just that one moment is enough for Rei to catch hold of Ritsu’s scent, and he lurches forward like he’s possessed. “Come now, this is no good,” he murmurs, striding quickly to his bedroom, sort of vaguely remembered now, even if it’s only been a year, and immediately makes to open it as he hears the lock turn. “Ritsu. Ritsu, it’s _me_ , open the door.” _You have to be happy to see me, it’s been a year--after being apart from you, you have to have missed me as much as I missed you._

“Sorry, Ritsu’s not here,” Ritsu calls through the door, trying and failing to drag the heaviest chair he can find in front of the door--nope, too heavy, but it’s the only thing that can keep his freakishly strong brother out. His lip starts quivering, and he bites it hard enough to bleed, refusing to let himself start crying. If he starts, just from the single waft of Rei’s scent from the sound of his voice after a _year_ , he’ll never stop. He knows that by now, after twelve long months.

His mouth tastes like ash. It always does, these days, and he resents the fact that he can see even with the blackout curtains drawn. Even trying to drag the chair is more energy than he’s managed to expend in days, and he lays down on the floor, panting, ill, face drawn and waxy. “Y-you must have the wrong room.”

“You’re being a terrible brat,” Rei hums, though he sounds less amused, more concerned by the moment. “Come now, sweet, open--” He puts his knee against the door, and shoves. “--the _door._ ” 

Fortunately, that’s enough force to make the lock give up when he jiggles the knob, and Rei shoves the door open with a huff. “Honestly,” he mutters, flipping his hair out of his face. “That’s so unnecess...”

The sight of Ritsu on the floor, pale and out of breath and looking all the world like he’s going to pass out any second, makes Rei shut his mouth in an instant, and he kicks the door shut behind him before kneeling down next to him. “Ritsu--Ritsu, sit up, here, I know you must be starving--” 

“ _Don’t touch me!”_

Ritsu’s voice is high and shrill, and he thrashes, trying to get away while clawing at the floor inaccurately, dragging himself towards the door. “Don’t--don’t _touch_ me, you’re _nothing_ to me, you’re not even a gross _bug_ \--” The tears want to come, and he bites his lip again, his stomach twisting in rage that it’s just his own blood, not what he _needs_.

Rei blinks, staring slack-jawed at Ritsu for a moment, not _entirely_ comprehending. This is the exact opposite of how he’d imagined their meeting after so long--certainly, Ritsu had missed him just as much, he’d understood that it wasn’t his fault, that their parents had sent him away and refused to let him contact Ritsu and...

_Or maybe, it’s the thing out of my nightmares, and they’ve been telling him something else, and he...believed them._

“...Ritsu,” Rei quietly tries again, swallowing down the urge to pounce when even just a droplet of Ritsu’s blood riles up the hunger he’s been repressing for a year now. “Come now, aren’t you hungry?” He brings his own wrist to his mouth, biting down into it before stretching his arm out in offering. “Even if you’re mad at me, you can still drink. Drain me dry, if you want.” 

Ritsu lets out a sob, curling in on himself, hugging his skinny legs as if he’s still that kid Rei had left, burying his face. “Don’t need you,” he whispers, trying to convince himself. “Y-you don’t want me, so I don’t need you!” 

Rei looks beautiful, of course. He looks strong and healthy, because he’s capable of taking care of himself and probably hasn’t been locked in a room alone for a year, starving and dying with everything turning to ash in his mouth. The smell of the blood on his wrist almost sends him into a frenzy, and he grabs his legs tighter. _You don’t need him. He abandoned you. He doesn’t love you, so you don’t need him. You’d rather starve than drink from him again, even if it means feeling like this until you die. Don’t forget, don’t be weak!_

“That’s...that’s not true at all, Ritsu,” Rei says, crawling forward, a few droplets of blood from his wrist welling up and splattering onto the carpet. Ritsu looks so delicate, so pale and wan and _breakable_ , and it breaks Rei’s heart even looking at him. “I’ve done nothing but think about you for the past year. I didn’t want to leave, I--” He swallows. “I didn’t have a choice. So please, just drink, even if you hate me.” 

“A year.” The words are muffled, Ritsu’s face smushed against his thighs, and he rocks back and forth. “A _year_. You didn’t call. A _year_. I’ve--I’ve just been _here_. Alone.” The words are anguished, no matter how he hadn’t intended to give Rei even that much of his emotions. He’s just too tired to stop himself, hurting too much, shaky and sore at heart. 

“Mom wouldn’t let me.” Rei can’t bite back the bitterness with those words, and he shuffles forward a few more centimeters. “I tried to call when I got over there--she blocked the number. She told me I could write, but she’d be screening every letter, and I didn’t...I didn’t want it to sound like I was lying to you, so I thought you’d understand if I waited...” He trails off, and reaches out, gingerly touching Ritsu’s hair. “I didn’t want to leave you, I swear.” 

The touch is too much, it’s been too long, and he’s so hungry (it’s the smell, that sticky-sweet-metallic burst he only remembers fully in his dreams) that Ritsu lunges, teeth sinking into Rei’s wrist, a sob wracking his body as he finally drinks. Rei’s blood tastes scaldingly hot against his tongue, and he’s too rough, teeth ripping through flesh, widening the holes as tremors shoot through him, color slowly returning to ashen cheeks as he gulps, four, five times before he yanks his mouth away. “S-sorry, sorry, sorry, I’m sorry, sorry--”

After so long, Ritsu drinking from him feels like his knees have been kicked out from underneath him--and so it’s a damn good thing he’s already on the floor. Rei chokes down a ragged gasp, wobbling where he knees, the strange mix of achy pain and intense, almost-aphrodisiac induced pleasure making him dizzy. “It’s fine, it’s fine,” he rasps, fluttering his other hand before he grabs at his wrist, squeezing it in hopes of making the bleeding stop. “Is that enough? You can have more, it’s fine if you need to...” _You could drink me dry and it would be fine, so long as you aren’t angry with me anymore._

Rei is absolving him, and Ritsu grasps at that, using the strength from that forgiveness to drag himself to his feet, snatching a blanket from the empty bed (so empty no matter how many times he’d curled up there, trying to smell the last remnants of his brother’s scent, waking from tortured dreams of not being alone, coming back because even those dreams are better than the cold reality) and wrapping it around his shoulders. Then he sags back, huddled and bundled, eyes gone dead and sad. “You’re smart. You could have figured it out. You could have had a friend give me a letter. I’m in the same grade as all your friends. But you didn’t.”

“I...” There’s no denying that he thought of that, of course. It isn’t as if he didn’t call Shu, and Wataru, and Kanata a dozen times over the past year, and the idea of telling them to speak to Ritsu came up more than once. But-- _but what if it was for the best that Mom and Dad sent me overseas? They had to have been right, none of this is normal, or right. I’m gross, I was hurting him._ “I’m sorry,” Rei settles upon lamely instead, shutting his eyes as he flops back onto the floor. “I thought...I wasn’t thinking. I missed you so much, I wanted to die.” 

“Bullshit.” Ritsu’s voice is flat, and the anger is familiar, comforting in a way that sadness isn’t. “They sent you away, sure. But I bet you started thinking it was for the best. That Mom and Dad--those bastards were right. Th-that I was better off without you. You want me to get over you? Fine. Mission accomplished. Get out.”

“It’s not bullshit, I missed you more than anything,” Rei insists, lurching forward and kneeling next to the bed, his hands clutching at the sheets as he peers up at Ritsu. “You’re right--you’re right, I did think that you would be better off without me. That _I_ was the reason everything bad happened, and I don’t think I’m entirely wrong. That doesn’t mean I didn’t miss you, Ritsu--so let me apologize now, please, I’ll put my head on the floor and beg if you want.”

“Who cares,” Ritsu says dully. Tears prick at his eyes again, and he blinks rapidly, letting them spill hot down his cheeks. “The only bad thing that happened was you leaving. Everything...everything before that...”

He strikes out, the emotions getting the better of him, and lands a solid crack to Rei’s face, lurching up to stand over him. “Y-you were the only thing I had! It was supposed to me you and me _against_ them--and you agreed with them! You agreed with them, with those _bastards_ , you let them push you around and tell you to leave me here _alone_ , I’ve been alone the whole _time_ , I hate you!”

Ritsu _has_ gotten stronger, substantially so, and Rei feels his jaw ache as his head snaps to the side. His fangs split the corner of his lip as well, and he quickly sucks up that droplet of blood before that can cause more problems as he slumps back. “...I know,” he quietly agrees. “I know. I didn’t want to leave. But Ritsu--they wouldn’t let me have a say in it. They lied to me, shoved me onto a plane...they even sent my old audition tapes in without me knowing about it, so they had a place lined up, I--” He sucks in a quick breath. “I know you don’t care, that none of it compares to what you went through, but please, just listen to me, _believe me_ that I didn’t want to leave.” 

“But you’re eighteen! You--you could have done something, anything, like you said, we could have _left_ , that’s--”

Ritsu’s stomach turns, and he groans, leaning back onto his hand. For a second he thinks it’s a hunger pang, but no, he’d actually _had_ something to drink. “What--”

His stomach flips again, twisting in on itself, and he cries out, doubling over and holding his belly. “Wh-what’s--what did you _eat_ , it feels like I’m _dying_ \--”

Ahh, damn it, damn it. And here he’d thought that was all out of his system by now. Rei winces in sympathy, even as he lurches up to his feet to steady Ritsu with long-fingered hands clutching at his shoulders. “Sorry, I’m sorry--there are a few extra ways to drown out your feelings overseas,” he says with a wry laugh, easing Ritsu back up onto the bed. “If you need to puke on me, that’s fair. It’ll pass, I promise.” 

Ritsu’s hands clutch at his brother’s shirt, and he whimpers, clinging as another spasm shoots through him. “S-seeing colors,” he gasps. “B-bad ones, it’s--nnh, it hurts, I d-don’t understand, ‘s’worse th-than Tenshouin-onii-chan after his medicine--”

_Things I didn’t need to know._ Rei squares his jaw, biting down the urge to comment, and instead climbs up into bed next to him, smoothing a hand down his hair, down his back. “It’ll pass, just relax,” he murmurs, burying his face down into Ritsu’s hair. “You’re fine. I’ve got you.” 

Ritsu shoves his face into Rei’s chest, hating that it’s broader than he remembers, more toned, that Rei is an _adult_ now and _still_ hadn’t come back for him, that he’s basically a stranger instead of his beloved older brother. He sobs, hating himself for being weak enough to grab onto the scant comfort of the man he used to love. “You did drugs,” he says hollowly, mouth moving against the salty skin of Rei’s chest. “You f-found a way to be happy without me. Fuck you. I hate you. You don’t care about me.” The words aren’t as strong as he wants them to be, but neither is he, anymore.

“I did them because I was _miserable_ ,” Rei half-explains, half- _pleads_ for Ritsu to understand. His arms tighten, and he throws an arm over Ritsu’s hip as well, trying to get all of his limbs around him. “I missed you so much I wanted to die. Every single time, I thought, maybe this time, that’ll be the end of it and I won’t have to live without you, at least...” he trails off, his voice wet, and he squeezes Ritsu tighter. “I love you, Ritsu. If _you_ were eighteen, I would’ve stolen you away a long time ago, but you know Mom and Dad will stop you while they still can.” 

“Th-they don’t care.” Ritsu’s voice breaks, nails (painted just like Rei’s even now) clawing into his shirt. “Mom had another breakdown. Dad s-sent her away. It’s just...it’s just me.” His voice is bleak now, exhausted, with the weight of the last year weighing heavily on him. More arguments come to mind, things he’s been furious about a hundred times--Rei knew he couldn’t contact him, he could have done _anything_ \--but he’s just too tired to let them out, that hot flare of pain stopping him from saying anything. “It’s just me in the dark.”

_You say they don’t care, but they would do it just to spite me._ Rei bites back those words, knowing they won’t help anything, and so he remains silent for a moment, slowly petting Ritsu’s back. “...You’re still friends with Mao-kun, aren’t you?” he finally settles upon. “Hasn’t he been keeping you company? And you’re still going to Yumenosaki, right?” 

“Got held back.” He’d pretended he didn’t care to his parents, who had hardly seemed to mind much at the news. “Second year again. Least I’m in the same class as Maa-kun now. I can’t...going to class in the day is so _hard_ , and I’m so tired all the time...”

“Damn,” Rei says in spite of himself, muffling a laugh at the annoying irony into Ritsu’s hair. “I deliberately flunked every transfer class overseas so I’d be in the same year as _you_ , and now you’ve gone and done this. Ahh, now that I’m home, I’ll buy you lots of cute parasols that’ll help with the sun, okay? And you can hide in my clubroom whenever you want from the sun, I’ll make sure it stays dark...” 

“Just buy me a coffin. I belong in a grave. You’re so _dumb_ , Onii-chan!” Ritsu scrubs a hand over his eyes, trying to pretend like he hasn’t been crying. “You were supposed to _graduate_ , so you could get your own place and I could move in with you--not that I _would_ , but now you _can’t_.”

“Ahh, not true, not true! I’ve been building a _brand_ ,” Rei says, very sure of himself. “I’m going to use this last year of school to get all the attention in the world with a real unit, and then I’ll make enough money to get us an apartment, and we can move out together...” It still sounds like something of a pipe dream, but it has to be real now, it _has_ to be. “Are you in a unit now, Ritsu? I heard rumors of a gravure career, which, ah...” _Turns me on and concerns me, all at once, go figure._

“Yeah. I’m a model, I guess.” Ritsu shrugs. “Started doing it ‘cuz they said it was international. Thought...I thought you might see it. And remember me. And maybe, maybe try to contact me. You didn’t, so I guess it was a dumb idea.”

“If I tried to contact you after seeing your gravure photobook, that would have _really_ set Mom off,” Rei protests, squeezing Ritsu tighter. “I, uh. Did end up buying every _single_ copy I found. You need to autograph them for me. You’re so beautiful, Ritsu, I could die--”

Ritsu sniffs, and pulls back, shoving off of Rei’s chest to look up at him through red-rimmed eyes. “I don’t even know if you still like me the same. I dunno if I even like _you_ the same way. It’s...different. And I’ve got money now, _my_ money. Maybe you should ask if you can follow _me_ around when I get out of here.”

“Of course I still like you in the same way,” Rei protests, clinging fast to Ritsu, refusing to let him go. “And fine, I’ll ask if I can follow you around, too. Do you still want an apartment in Tokyo? Or do you want one in Osaka now, or maybe as far as Hokkaido--or we could go to England, you’d like it there, it’s always rainy and overcast and the sun barely hurts at all...” 

He doesn’t want to say it, but some of Ritsu’s nerves disappear with that statement, so certain, so positive that Rei still wants him. “M’not cute and tiny anymore,” he mutters. “And you...you talk different. Taste different. It’s the worst.”

“I won’t taste different for long,” Rei reassures him, now seriously regretting that going-away party from last weekend. “And I still think you’re _super_ cute, and you didn’t get that tall, and you still...mm, yes, you still sound like a cute girl, in the best of ways.” Rei buries his face back into Ritsu’s hair, nuzzling his way down to his neck, and exhales a long, ragged sigh. “And you smell so good.” 

Ritsu searches Rei’s face, and finds no trace of the pallor, the ashy waxen look that his own has had for the better part of a year. “You’ve been drinking. A lot. From other people. I hope you killed them.” That would be better than knowing Rei has someone else like him, someone half-turned and _dependent_ on him.

“...Don’t sound so annoyed with me about it,” Rei murmurs, now thoroughly distracted by the pulse of blood in Ritsu’s throat, and trying not to focus on it. “I did kill them, though. There were only a couple, but I was going mad without you.” 

Ritsu watches the way Rei stares, and thrusts his jaw out, defiant. If Rei can resist for a year, he can do it for a day. 

(But he didn’t think it would be so hard, with Rei here, smelling like he used to, touching him like he used to, that voice deep and rumbling even more these days.)

“I wanted to. But I couldn’t...I dunno how to get people to come with me. I got tired. Mostly I just drank a little from my friends whenever I thought I was gonna die.” He doesn’t mean to be so honest, but it’s _Rei_.

“Well, that’s not so bad, if they didn’t mind...” He’s in no place to criticize, not when he hadn’t been here for Ritsu to feed on. It had been _easy_ in England, even if everyone he’d slurped down had made his stomach turn (far more the taste than the act of killing, because he’s that terrible); it was still sustenance, and that was what was entirely necessary at the time. Rei’s fingers lift, absently, distractedly splaying his painted nails against Ritsu’s throat, thumbing over the thud of his pulse. The temptation to bite is strong, _so_ strong, but Ritsu is glowering at him, not inviting him, and that makes his heart ache in his chest. “I’m home now, though, so you can drink from me whenever you want.” 

“If I feel like drinking from someone so gross again.”

Ritsu shudders at the touch, even as he tells himself to _stop it stop it stop it_ , and purposely pulls away. If Rei didn’t want to chase after him for a year, there’s no reason to make it easy on him now. He’s lived a year without being happy. He can go longer, if necessary. “You made me want to puke. Why should I let you put your gross mouth on my neck?”

“Because I’ll make it feel good.” It’s a practiced response now, though humans usually are flirting with him, not complaining about puking. “Ahh...you don’t have to let me, but I can only imagine how good you taste now...”

“Too good for you. You’re just...you’re a bug. A gross bug.” What is he even saying? Rei is _here_. Ritsu’s fantasized about what he’d want to do if Rei were here for a solid year, and now that he actually gets the chance, he can’t stop himself from acting like this? He can almost feel the way it would be with Rei’s teeth sinking into his neck, releasing those chemicals that make him gasp and writhe, making him feel complete for the first time in a year. “You’re probably going back to your lame unit, huh? With the Vice President and your dumb dog?”

“Oh, no. No, no, no no no no,” Rei briskly says, idly pushing Ritsu’s hair back behind his ears, needing to distract himself from the pulse of his blood for a second. “Absolutely not. I’m going to make a new unit. Hasumi is absolutely not invited...Kouga, maybe, we’ll see. Ah, you should join me, I bet your voice is _lovely_ these days.”

“Got a unit. Knights. We do boy band stuff. Our Leader--Leo-sama--writes all the music. You heard his stuff, right?” Ritsu leans back on his elbows, letting his eyes lid. Can he provoke Rei into attacking? That might be interesting. “He’s a genius, you know.”

Rei’s head tilts, expression bemused. “A genius. Is that what you think?” 

“Best composer I’ve ever heard.” No, he can totally keep a straight face. He’s got this. “I mean, he doesn’t write for instruments, but it’s not like they’re really _necessary_. We mostly do pre-recorded synthesizer and vocals. In unison.”

“You’re trying not to laugh. You’re very bad at this.” 

“Nope. Wrong. Nothing is funny. We call him King. Because he’s a genius. I love singing the stuff he writes. And cleaning up when he draws on the walls isn’t annoying at all.”

Rei rolls eyes, and rolls forward with a long-suffering sigh, easily pinning Ritsu down with a hand on his shoulder. “Right, right, you want me to be annoyed,” he hums, nuzzling right back into Ritsu’s throat and this time, allowing himself to part his lips when he presses a kiss there. Ooh, that’s a mistake, because even Ritsu’s _skin_ tastes good. “Well, I certainly think _Leo-sama_ is annoying, but that doesn’t change how cute you are~”

The shiver starts at Ritsu’s ear, then fizzles down his spine, radiating back out to all of his limbs, making him twist slowly under his brother’s touch. Well, he hadn’t expected his refusal to last long, anyways. His lips part, and he licks them, murmuring, “H-he’s the best musician I’ve ever heard. Nnh, can’t play the violin, b-but he says it’s a dumb instrument--”

Rei strikes as quickly as a snake--certainly more practiced than he’d been when he’d left a year ago, more precise, and far gentler even if he’s faster about sinking his fangs into Ritsu’s flesh. The first swallow of blood makes him groan, and his fingers sink into Ritsu’s shoulders as he pushes him down, holding him in place as he drinks, slow, lingering sips rather than the sloppy gulps of the past. “God,” he breathes, his eyes fluttering as he draws back, refusing to take too much after so long. “Ritsu--Ritsu, _no one_ tastes like you...”

Ritsu’s eyes roll back into his head, and he gasps, gulping at the air, releasing it in a shattered whine of an exhale as his limbs shudder, then go slowly still. “Onii-chan,” he whispers, and damn them, the tears start again, blessed relief that Rei still wants him, wants him even when he’s being pushed away, wants him even if Ritsu isn’t chasing and clinging. 

That bursts the floodgates, and Ritsu grabs, rolling them over and shoving Rei down to his back, hands ripping and tearing at his shirt. “Fuck me,” he demands, nails scoring long red welts in Rei’s skin. “If you don’t, I don’t believe you still love me--”

Still dazed after his first good, _real_ drink after so long--filthy humans don’t count, they make him sick and make him feel disgusting--Rei blinks up at him, vision blurring and blood staining his lips. “Ri--” He swallows, his tongue sticking to the roof of his mouth when his mouth goes dry, and all he can do is nod helplessly, his hands immediately grabbing for Ritsu’s shirt to haul him down. “Ritsu,” he breathes, lurching up to mouth kisses over where he just drank from, sucking slowly on the skin, leaving marks that he wishes would last. “Anything you want, anything. Ritsu, let me take care of you.” 

“Do it.”

God, it feels good to surrender. No one takes care of him like Rei, no one bosses him around _for his own good_ , no one else cares so aggressively that they don’t _let_ him go. Mao tries, but he has his own life, his own unit, and Ritsu spends most of his time trying not to feel guilty about that.

With Rei, he hadn’t felt guilty, back then. In the last year...

The arousal crumples, flares into guilt and crippling sadness, and he half-collapses into Rei’s chest. “I-it was my fault. They sent you away. It w-was because of m-me.” His chest heaves with the suddenness of the sobs, the mood swings dark and swift enough to take him over whenever they want, no matter what else he’s doing, knocking him flat now. “It w-was m-m-me...”

“No, no, no, shh, Ritsu, no, it wasn’t your fault, it wasn’t...” 

Rei rolls them, gentle when he presses Ritsu down into the mattress, kissing his way up to his lips when he grabs Ritsu’s face in both of his hands. “Blame it on me, it’s fine,” he whispers. “It was my fault, we both know it was. Just don’t cry, okay? You’re too cute to cry, so--” His chest aches, and it has nothing to do with the scoring Ritsu’s nails left behind. “Ritsu, love, I’ve missed you so much, let me make love to you and you don’t have to think about it anymore.” 

“M-Mom saw us.” Ritsu is gross when he cries, knows he’s blotchy and swollen and red and snotty, and can’t help it now that the floodgates are open. “She got, she got drunk once and t-told me, when she was off the wagon...s-saw me sitting on your lap at the piano and us...kissing and stuff.” And he remembers that day, is sure they both do, when he’d tackled Rei during one of their duets, remembers how it was all his idea, how it’s all his fault and because of that he can’t even hate Rei properly.

“I don’t care.” Rei knows--has known for awhile. Of _course_ his parents saw something, of course they knew. He doesn’t care, because the worst thing has already happened: he’s been shipped off, Ritsu hates him, or at least, thinks that the world has ended and he therefore has reason to hate him. “I don’t care, that doesn’t make me stop wanting you.” He sits back onto his knees, hauling Ritsu up into his lap, holding his face still and kissing the blotchiness of his cheeks. “Or loving you. I’ll shove my tongue down your throat in front of her to prove it, I don’t care what she thinks.” 

The last walls fall.

Ritsu cries like he hasn’t cried since the night his father returned and said his big brother had gone to England, like he hasn’t let anyone see since he was old enough not to wet the bed. He collapses, the stress and starvation and sudden painful relief too much for his small body, sobbing so hard he can’t breathe. _Prove it_ , he wants to say, says with his clinging, clutching hands. _Prove it over and over again, until I can make myself believe you. Force me to believe it._

_I’m sorry, I’m sorry._ No matter how many times he says it, Rei knows that it isn’t quite enough. Rei wavers, then, caught between petting and comforting and simply pressing Ritsu back into the bed and trying to fuck at least a little bit of the sadness out of him. He settles on a mix of the two, pushing Ritsu back into the mattress, crawling up between his thighs, kissing his neck, his face, the curve of his ear. “I’ve got you, just hold onto me,” he whispers, his hands splaying gently curling around around his hips, squeezing, hooking his fingers into Ritsu’s waistband. “Take another drink from me, love, I’m sure it’s diluted now, it shouldn’t make you sick now...”

Ritsu lunges, desperate for something to hold on to, teeth sinking in deep. He isn’t even drinking, just biting to _keep_ , latched to Rei’s shoulder for a long second before he pulls back. Some of the wretched sadness is drained now, the last banished by the coppery-bright taste on his tongue, and he melts back to the bed, wriggling out of his pants. “If you leave me again,” he pants, grabbing Rei by the throat, eyes burning suddenly bright, “I’ll find someone else. I, I can’t live like that again, I can’t _do it_ , I’m not strong enough--”

“I _won’t_ leave you again,” Rei rasps, letting Ritsu pull him down by that hold as he fumbles with his button and fly. Ritsu biting again, even if he isn’t drinking, makes his eyes glaze, and his cock aches when he shoves his jeans down. “I promise, I promise. I’d let you kill me if I tried, trust me, Ritsu, _please_.” 

“But I _can’t_ trust you!” Ritsu gives Rei’s shoulder a whack on top of the closing bite mark, then another for good measure, even as he squirms to get his legs spread. “So I’m gonna punish you, Onii-chan. Wanna hear about who else I’ve been with? Who I let do stuff to me?”

“Ahh…not really~” Rei hums, unfazed by being hit when Ritsu is still spreading his legs underneath him and calling him _Onii-chan._  “I don’t want anyone else to put their hands on you.” He reaches over Ritsu, pawing underneath his pillow out of habit, and then sighs, pinching the inside of one of Ritsu’s thighs. “Where did you hide the lube now?” 

“It’s a _punishment_ ,” Ritsu says with a groan, flopping over to grab for the lube he keeps under Rei’s bed. “Obviously you don’t _want_ to hear about it, jackass! Ugh, it’s not like _you_ were celibate. I can taste it.” 

“But if I told you about what _I_  was doing, you’d walk right out of this room and never talk to me again.” Rei’s eyes lid as he watches Ritsu roll and stretch off the bed, and he idly snatches the bottle out of Ritsu’s hand, flipping Ritsu over onto his stomach in short order. “Did they take care of you the way I do, I wonder?” 

Part of Ritsu, the part that still thinks his brave strong brother can solve any problem and defeat any enemy, wants to go pliant and sweet, admitting that it’s never been the same, that no one touches him like Rei, that no one ever _could_. The part of him that’s kept him alive for the last year wants to lash out, kicking hard at the parts that’ll hurt the most, telling him he’s nowhere near the lay that Mao or Eichi is.

He buries his face in the pillow, conflicted, heartsick, horny, and spreads his legs. “Remind me,” he whispers, knowing Rei can hear him. 

Rei rolls the bottle between his hands, warming it before pouring a generous amount onto his fingers. Short nails on his right hand, that’s the ticket, as that makes far more than just playing a musical instrument easy--though being able to play Ritsu like a violin is just as good. 

“I’ll take care of you,” Rei promises against the back of his neck, a pair of fingers gently rubbing against Ritsu’s hole before they sink inside, pressing into the second knuckle and immediately curling, stroking. His own breath escapes as a shuddery exhale. After so long, Ritsu is _still_ so hot and tight inside, and his fangs can’t help but nick into the curve of his shoulder. “Ritsu, you’re _perfect..._ ”

After so long coiled as tight as a spring, the first push of those long, familiar fingers into Ritsu’s body make him shudder down to the core. Any thought of being cool and aloof is gone, and all he can do is push mindlessly back, mouth slack and drooling. “Onii-chan,” he moans, squirming to get his knees farther apart. His body rouses to Rei’s touch when it barely tolerates anyone else, making him feel _alive_ again for the first time in a year. “J-just--just put it in, I can’t wait, I’m gonna die.” He sniffs, fingers digging into the pillow hard enough to pull it apart, his cock already dripping freely against the bedsheets. “Please...”

“Mm, just be patient, love, I haven’t gotten to play with you for so long...” 

It’s mean of him to make Ritsu wait, Rei knows, but he can’t _help_ it. He makes the cutest noises, his voice still so high and breathy even now, and Rei grabs at one of Ritsu’s hips to steady him and pull him back onto his hand when he twists it, stroking him from the inside. “You look like you’re going to die without it,” he groans, his own cock hard and aching as it rubs against the back of Ritsu’s thigh. “Do you know how much I thought about just _this_?” 

“Y-you thought about _not_ putting it in me?”

Ritsu’s voice is half-annoyed, half-pleading, and he gives up on dignity, humping needily back on his brother’s fingers. “Need it...Onii-chan...” He hikes his ass up, letting his chest and face rest on the blanket. “You...you should make me, make me come just like this, before you fuck me.” The very idea makes him clench and writhe, hole squeezing tight around Rei’s fingers.

Rei chokes on a moan when the thought goes straight to his cock, and his fingers tighten against Ritsu’s hip, dragging him back. “ _That’s_ what I think about,” he confesses breathlessly, wriggling and twisting a third finger inside no matter how tight the squeeze. Carefully, gently curling his fingers always produces the best result, because it’s like he’s wringing out every single last bit from Ritsu, and the way he clenches down makes Rei’s mouth dry. “It’s so cute when you’re like this, Ritsu...” 

“O--nn--”

That’s all Ritsu can choke out before he’s coming, thighs tense and trembling, sweat beading at the small of his back, heat shooting through him in a single electric spike. It’s so different, so much _better_ to come when there’s something in him, the reason he never gets off anymore without his fingers or a toy drilling into him. It’s a different kind of orgasm, and the only one that makes him _forget_ , starting far behind his cock and shivering through his whole body until he’s wrecked, boneless and shuddering in a pool on the bed. It feels like it lasts hours, with Rei stroking and toying with him, wringing out every last drop, milking him dry until he’s nothing but a purring mess, collapsed under his fingers.

“That’s a good boy, easy, easy, Onii-chan’s got you...” 

It feels like they used to be, and god, is it easy to return to old habits when Ritsu’s whimpering and writhing against his hand like that. Rei pulls his hand back and grabs Ritsu around the waist, dragging him back into his lap, kissing sweat off of his neck and nuzzling up into his hair as his cock rubs up along the cleft of Ritsu’s ass. “I love it when I can make you feel good,” he breathes, his own eyes fluttering when the head of his cock catches against Ritsu’s hole, and it’s just so _easy_ to push inside when he’s trembly and boneless that he can’t resist. Ritsu is achingly hot inside, clenching down around him, and Rei sucks on the curve of his shoulder as he rocks up into him, breath ragged. “Ritsu, Ritsu...” 

“I love you.”

The words are wet and ragged, in a voice Ritsu is pretty sure sounds too young for his body. He fumbles back, grabbing for one of Rei’s hands, holding it to his chest with all the strength his feeble body can muster. Everything is dreamy and delicious with every rock of his brother’s hard cock into his body, and he’s never been so grateful for Rei’s superhuman strength as when he just sags back, letting himself be taken care of. “Don’t--don’t listen to me when I say I don’t. Here...” He rolls his head to the side, pulling sweat-slick hair off of his neck, an open invitation.

It’s too much of a temptation to resist, especially when Ritsu is offering himself up so _beautifully_. Rei’s mouth immediately sets to the side of his neck, gently sucking, priming the skin with little kisses that turn to nips, drawing the tiniest pinpricks of blood to the surface before he bites down hard.

His cock slides in deep, buried to the hilt until there’s no space between them, and Rei’s fingers curl against Ritsu’s chest, gently twisting, rubbing over one of his nipples as he stays still inside, savoring the way it feels to be buried inside when Ritsu’s blood flows freely across his tongue. He only pulls back to catch one, sweet breath before sucking on the bite marks he left behind, and grinds up slowly into Ritsu’s body, the arm slung low and tight around his waist there to steady him as much as pull him into every movement. “Doesn’t matter what you say,” Rei mutters, kissing up behind his ear. “You’re mine, Ritsu, I love you.” 

For a moment of utter bliss, everything feels like it used to. Rei loves him, Rei is drinking from him, Rei is inside of him, Rei is _here_. It’s enough to make Ritsu croon, raising up on shaky thighs to grind down, pressing against every place they’re touching, dragging every bit of sweet pleasure out of his brother’s embrace. “Lemme...make you feel good,” he murmurs, rocking down against Rei’s hips, feeling that obscene slick stretch stuffing his hole fuller than he thought possible. The bite to his neck makes him drool, and he arches farther, trying to give Rei everything he wants, everything he has. “You never...get it from anyone as good as me, right? You love me most, right?”

“Ritsu, no one is like you, I don’t love anyone _but_ you,” Rei eagerly agrees, his voice trailing off on a groan when Ritsu wriggles back down against him. He can’t stop his fingers from pinching, pulling on Ritsu’s nipples as he leans back, enough to watch the way his cock sinks into Ritsu’s body every single time. It’s the most glorious torture to go this slow after _so_ long without, and Rei’s fingers shake when he drags his hands down, squeezing Ritsu’s waist in his hands. “God, you’re fucking beautiful,” he mutters, helplessly slipping back into old speech patterns, and he mouths kisses all down the back of Ritsu’s neck, sucking salt and blood alike off of his skin. “Perfect, you’re perfect. Ahh, god, does that feel good? I’ve missed being inside of you, so much...”

That sounds like the Rei of years past, and Ritsu turns, nuzzling against Rei’s cheek, mouthing sloppy kisses in the general direction of his face, suddenly desperate. “Just--you don’t have to wait,” he groans, rocking down hungrily, arching at the touches to his chest. “G-get off in me, then we can cuddle, just--take what you want, whatever you want, need you to come in me--Onii-chan, _please_ \--”

It’s not like Rei can refuse a plea like that-- _no_ plea from Ritsu is something he can refuse, but this is on another level. He huffs out a hot breath as he shoves Ritsu forward, facedown into a pillow again. “Just let me know if it’s too much,” he says, mouthing a kiss into Ritsu’s hair before his hips grind in deep.

Proper leverage is a blessing, and Rei’s hands dig into the mattress when he shoves in hard, their skin slapping together each time. The way their body sticks together with sweat is agonizingly good, and Rei’s breath huffs out raggedly against Ritsu’s neck with each deep slide. 

When he comes, Rei knows he’s too rough, grabbing Ritsu by the shoulder to hold him in place when he spills. His hips languidly roll forward through every shiver, every tremor, and he can feel the sticky mess inside of Ritsu, knowing how _full_ he must feel now with that and Rei’s cock still buried inside of him. “There you go, is that good? God, Ritsu, you’re so...” _Lovely, lovely, perfect, I love you._

“Better,” Ritsu agrees lazily, deliberately squeezing down to milk out the last few drops, luxuriating in the cramping, almost painful fullness. He breathes through it, licking his lips, letting the lingering flashes of pain wash through his body with a sweet, slow fizzling burn. “Wish you could stay in me. Like, from now on.”

“That sounds wonderful,” Rei groans, rolling slowly sideways and dragging Ritsu with him with an arm snugly wrapped about his waist. Just because of that comment, he refuses to pull out until Ritsu actually starts complaining. “Mmn, Ritsu...you have to be this sweet to me all the time now that I’m home again, you know.” 

“Sounds fake,” Ritsu says through a yawn, snuggling back against Rei’s chest. “I get a year to be mean to you whenever I want. Agree now or die.”

“That’s not fair,” Rei complains, shoving his face down into Ritsu’s sweaty hair. “I’ve missed you so much, you can’t be mean to me for a whole year.” 

“Didn’t say I was gonna be mean for a whole year. Just that I can be mean whenever I want for a whole year.”

“That sounds like you’d do it at the worst of times, though. Why can’t you be nice to me instead?” 

Ritsu yawns again, deliberately turning to do it in Rei’s face. “Tolerate it. Cuz you love me.”

“I mean, that _is_ true...” Rei hedges on a sigh, putting a hand over Ritsu’s mouth. “I suppose I don’t hate the idea of someone so beautiful being cruel to me. It’s romantic, in a way.” 

Ritsu bites, hard enough to prove a point, then swipes his tongue over the pinprick of blood he draws. “You gotta prove you love me. Prove it for a year. I’ll be sweet to you if you keep loving me all year no matter what I do.”

Underneath Ritsu’s bite, Rei’s fingers curl like a cat flexing its toes. “That seems highly unfair,” he says, already defeated. “But if that’s what it takes. Mm, fine. Just let me keep taking care of you like this.” 

“And you won’t leave?” Ritsu’s voice is suddenly small, uncertain, as a wave of loneliness threatens him. “No matter what?”

“I won’t leave.” Rei slides his hand away, thumb dragging over the swell of Ritsu’s lower lip. “No matter what. I promise.” 

“We’ll see.” Ritsu licks that thumb, then lets his eyes slide shut, relaxed for the first time in a year.


End file.
